МЕТОДИКА ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА
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МЕТОДИКА ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

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МЕТОДИКА ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА
Содержит современные методики изучения английского языка. Данное пособие будет полезно в первую очередь студентам и аспирантам гуманитарных специальностей высших учебных заведений, студентам факультетов иностранных языков, а также всем тем, кто желает повысить свой уровень владения языком, будь то просто школьник, добиться глубинного понимания текста, усовершенствовать навыки устной и письменной речи и перевода. Состоит из 5 частей. 2 теоретические 3 остальные практические, которые содержат интересную информацию и иллюстрации.
Колыхалова О. А., Макаев В. В. - Английский язык.doc

 

О.А.КОЛЫХАЛОВА, В.В.МАКАЕВ

АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК

Учебник

Для студентов и аспирантов                                                                                                       гуманитарных специальностей вузов

Рекомендовано                                                                                                                                         Учебно-методическим объединением                                                                                         высших учебных заведений                                                                                                    Российской Федерации                                                                                                                      по педагогическому образованию

 

 

 

 

 

 

ББК 81.2 Англ. К 60


УДК 802.0


 


Авторы:

О. А. Колыхалова, зав. кафедрой английского языка гуманитарных факультетов МПГУ, член-корреспондент Международной академии наук педагогического образования, кандидат филологических наук, доцент - главы II, V, III (совместно с В. В. Макаевым);

В. В. Макаев, профессор многих зарубежных университетов, кандидат педагогических наук, доцент - главы I, II, III (совместно с О. А. Колыхаловой).

Колыхалова О. А., Макаев В. В.

К60    Английский язык: Учебник для студентов и аспиран­тов гуманитарных специальностей вузов. - М.: Изда­тельский центр «Академия», 1998. - 463 с.

ISBN 5-7695-0179-0

Учебник написан молодыми специалистами в области филологии и педагогики, использующими в своей работе классические принципы дидактики и современные направления в российском и западном уни­верситетском образовании. Учебник отражает современные иннова­ционные тенденции в методике преподавания языка, ориентирован­ные на его глубокое и полное изучение. Учебник вовлекает обучаемых в самостоятельную работу и полезен как для занятий под руково­дством учителя, так и для самостоятельного изучения и совершенст­вования своих знаний.

ББК 81.2 Англ.


ISBN 5-7695-0179-0


© Колыхалова О.А., Макаев В В., 1998

© Издательский центр «Академия», 1998


ОТ АВТОРОВ

Учебник «Английский язык» адресован в первую очередь сту­дентам и аспирантам гуманитарных специальностей высших учеб­ных заведений, студентам факультетов иностранных языков, а также всем тем, кто желает повысить свой уровень владения язы­ком, добиться глубинного понимания текста, усовершенствовать навыки устной и письменной речи и перевода.

Учебник состоит из пяти частей.

Первые две части теоретические. Они содержат материалы о словарном составе языка: многозначности, семантических пол­ях, структуре простых и сложных предложений, способах связи между ними, видах чтения. Теоретический материал дополняется упражнениями и заданиями.

Третья и четвертая части содержат иллюстративный материал, способствующий закреплению полученной информации. Тексты познавательны, информативны, интересны, современны.

Пятая часть состоит из упражнений, направленных на анализ внутренней структуры текстов.

Книга отражает последние инновационные тенденции в ме­тодике преподавания языка, ориентированные на его глубокое и полное изучение. Новый подход к изучению языка выразил­ся в соотношении и структуре теоретического и практического материала.

Все тексты и упражнения в учебнике мотивационны и взаи­монаправленны. Он удобен в обращении, так как предлагает удоб­но маркированные тексты и упражнения; легко ложится на компь­ютерные программы. Он вовлекает обучаемых в самостоятель­ную работу и полезен как для работы в аудитории под руководст­вом учителя, так и для индивидуальных занятий.

Авторы выражают глубокую признательность рецензентам, преподавателям кафедры английского языка гуманитарных фа­культетов МПГУ и преподавателям кафедры английского языка факультета переподготовки педагогических кадров МИПКРО, где апробировался данный учебник. Высказанные ими замечания были учтены при доработке рукописи.

Авторы будут признательны всем, кто пришлет свои отзывы об этой работе.

О.А. Колыхалова, В. В. Макаев


PREFACE

The textbook «English for Humanities» is for students and postgraduate students of Humanities departments. It can also be used by anyone who wishes to improve his knowledge of English.

It consists of five parts. The first two parts are theoretical, supplemented with exercises. Part I focusses on vocabulary, word formation and word usage. Special attention is paid to the use of words in different contexts.

Part II is devoted to the teaching of reading and compre­hending the texts. Here much attention is paid to sentence and text structure reading strategies per se.

Parts III and IV include rich variety of motivating humani­ties oriented texts which illustrate the theoretical material of the first two parts.

Part V is entirely a set of modern exercises (open-end ques­tionnaire, multiple choice, alternative, etc.) aiming at better analysing and the inner structure of the texts, purposeful ex­traction the information.

The main aim of the textbook is to help students to under­stand the text itself by increasing their word power, to teach them text analysis. The student is to increase his word power, and through the vocabulary he is to come to an understanding of the whole text, to master the techniques of text analysis.

For students it is necessary to economize on time and the textbook teaches them to work with different texts, trying to evaluate the general idea by skimming and scanning.

The textbook teaches a student a wide variety of skills, helps him/her answer formal and in-depth questions, without con­fusing him. It provides a student with appropiate techniques and know-how which is one of its main purposes.

User-friendly in its layout and the very structure, the text­book offers easy for marking ennumeratedly lined texts, exer­cises, firmly based on the classic principles of didactics strives at combining them with modern Western university education.

We hope that this textbook will not be the ultimate in its kind in the series but the first, and that other similar textbooks(e.g. in grammar ) will follow.


BOOK I

 

PART I                                                                                                                                                     WORD POWER (VOCABULARY STUDY)

 

SECTION  1

INTRODUCTION TO WORD POWER (WP)

WP is about words and word knowledge

It has been estimated by some researchers (Nagy and Herman, 1984)* that a native speaker of English who has completed 12 years of school encounters approximately 88,500 distinct word families with upwards of 100,000 distinct meanings in reading in English. According to Nagy and Herman, if materials for higher grades and for adults were included, then these figures would be substantially higher. In their view, the best way to acquire this necessary vocabulary is by reading, reading and more reading! While it may be an unrealistic goal to expect to acquire all the words one needs within the frame­work of one course or even two, it is possible to improve one's word acquisition strategies and one's knowledge of and about words. This is the purpose of this unit.

* Nagy, William E. and Herman, Patricia A. (1984)

«Limitations of Vocabulary Instruction» Technical Report No. 326 Center for the Study of Reading University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

 

Which words you learn is up to you. You, the learner, have to build your own personalized vocabulary based on what you feel is important to you. The information and exercises in­cluded in the WP unit, along with the texts you read in the EFL course and the readings in English on the bibliographies for your other courses, will increase your English vocabulary. We hope all this will also improve your word knowledge (i.e. what you know about how words are formed and how to figure out what new words probably mean). Ultimately, we hope it will give you a feeling of word power (WP).

                    GOOD LUCK!

 

       SECTION II

WORDS ON WORDS

(Some Thoughts About How, and What, Words «Mean»)

Text A. (from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll «Humpty Dumpty» — Chapter VI)

«When I use a word,» Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, «it means just what I choose it to mean — nei­ther more nor less .»

«The question is,» said Alice, «whether you can make words 5 mean so many different things.»

«The question is,» said Humpty Dumpty, «which is to be master — that's all.»

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. «... I can manage the 10 whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!»

«Would you tell me, please,» said Alice, «what that means?» «... I meant by "impenetrability" that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here 15 all the rest of your life.»

«That's a great deal to make one word mean,» Alice said in a thoughtful tone.

«When I make a word do a lot of work like that,» said Humpty Dumpty, «I always pay it extra.»

Text B. (from Lewis Carroll's Symbolic Logic, quoted on p.269 of The Annotated Alice, ed. Martin Gardner)

...I maintain that any writer of a book is fully authorized in attaching any meaning he likes to any word or phrase he intends to use. If I find an author saying, at the beginning of his book, «Let it be understood that by the word "black" I shall always mean "white", and that by the word "white" I shall always mean "black,"» I meekly accept this ruling, however injudicious I may think it.

Text C. (from «The Philosopher's Alice in Wonderland,» by Roger W. Holmes, in the Antioch Review, Summer, 1959, also quoted in The Annotated Alice fp.2701)

«May we ... make our words mean what we choose them to mean? One thinks of a Soviet delegate using "democracy" in a U.N. debate. May we «pay our words extra,» or is this the stuff that propaganda is made of? Do we have an obligation to past usage? In one sense words are our masters, or communi­cation would be impossible. In another we are the masters; otherwise there could be no poetry.»

Text D. (from «Words,on Words,» the acceptance speech de­livered by Vaclav Havel, on receiving the Peace Prize of the German Booksellers Association on October 15,1989; reprinted in «The New York Review of Books,» January 18, 1990)

(1) Words can have histories too.

(2) There was a time, for instance, when, for whole genera­tions of the downtrodden and oppressed, the word socialism was a mesmerizing synonym for a just world, a time when, for the ideal expressed in that word, people were capable of sacri­ficing years and years of their lives, and their very lives even. I don't know about your country, but in mine, that particular word — «socialism» — was transformed long ago into just an ordinary truncheon used by certain cynical, parvenu bureauc rats to bludgeon their liberal-minded fellow citizens from morning until night, labeling them «enemies of socialism» and «antisocialism forces.» It's a fact: in my country, for ages now, that word has been no more than an incantation that should be avoided if one does not wish to appear suspect.

 (3) I was recently at an entirely spontaneous demonstration ...protesting the sell-off of one of the most beautiful parts of Prague to some Australian millionaires. When one of the speak­ers there, loudly decrying the project, sought to bolster his appeal to the government by declaring that he was fighting for his home in the name of socialism, the crowd started to laugh. Not because they had anything against a just social order, but quite simply because they heard a word which has been in-canted for years and years in every possible and impossible context by a regime that only knows how to manipulate and humiliate people.

(4) What a weird fate can befall certain words! At one mo­ment in history, courageous, liberal-minded people can be thrown into prison because a particular word means something to them, and at another moment, people of the selfsame variety can be thrown into prison because that word has ceased to mean anything to them, because it has changed from a symbol of a better world into the mumbo jumbo of a doltish dictator.

(5) No word — at least not in the rather metaphorical sense I am employing the word «word» here — comprises only the meaning assigned to it by an etymological dictionary. The mean­ing of every word also reflects the person who utters it, the situation in which it is uttered, and the reason for its utterance. The selfsame word can, at one moment, radiate great hopes, at another, it can emit lethal rays. The selfsame word can be true at one moment and false the next, at one moment illuminat­ing, at another, deceptive. On one occasion it can open up glorious horizons, on another, it can lay down the tracks to an entire archipelago of concentration camps. The selfsame word can at one time be the cornerstone of peace, while at another, machine-gun fire resounds in its every syllable.

(6) Gorbachev wants to save socialism through the market economy and free speech, while Li Peng protects socialism by massacring students, and Ceausescu by bulldozing his people. What does that word actually mean on the lips of the one and 50 the lips of the other two? What is this mysterious thing — [«socialism»] — that is being rescued in such disparate ways?

 

Text E.

Exercises:

I . In text (C) above, Roger W. Holmes asks: «May we... make our words mean what we choose them to mean?»

1. How does Holmes himself answer this?

2. Compare Holmes' position on this issue with that of Lewis Carroll (in text В above). Which of the two do you find more persuasive?

3. Why do you suppose Lewis Carroll qualified what he said by adding at the end of his declaration, «however injudicious I may think it»? (What did he realize might turn out to be «in­judicious»?)

4. How do you imagine Vaclav Havel (in text D) might answer the same question?

5. How does the girl in the peanuts cartoon answer it?

6. What words that have «histories» (see the first sentence of Havel's speech) can you think of?

II. A. Carroll tells us (in text В above) that if a writer wants to use a word to mean something different from what it com­monly means, he need only tell us, at the beginning of his text, what special meaning he has assigned to that word in his text. But what if a writer does not prepare his reader in this way? By what other means can we guess what meaning he has assigned to a word that he has used in an unusual way (one that cannot be found in any dictionary?)

1. One possibility is illustrated in the short Text (Part III) called «Filters Against Folly.» The writer speaks of a «shortage of supply and a longage of demand» (1.4). The tech­nical term for the rhetorical device used here by this writer is «parallelism.» What do you think «parallelism» means? How do we know what he means by longage, even though the word does not appear in any dictionary?

2. We can also guess something about the meaning of a word by its position in the sentence, or by its ending. This can be helpful in understanding something about what a writer is telling us, even when we're not familiar with many of the words he uses.

a. To understand something about the meaning of a word by its position in the sentence, we have to know the parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.)-and how they function in an English sentence.

For example:

— The first word in a sentence will usually never be a verb. But an unfamiliar word that follows one of the familiar modals (can, may, must, would, etc.) probably is a verb (e.g. , He may abscond with the money) , though the modal may be followed by an adverb (e.g. , He may never abscond with the money). -An unfamiliar word following any of the determiners (i.e., the articles «the», «a», «an», «some», «any»: the possessive pronouns such as «my», «your», etc. ; the demonstratives «this», «that», «these», and «those»; and the counters or mea­suring words such as «few», «many», «several», etc.)-is probably a noun of some sort (e.g. , Behold the Aardvark ingesting termites). -A word ending in «ly» is likely to be an adverb (e.g. , He is demonstrably idiotic), fol­lowed by an adjective; though it could also be an adjec­tive (e.g., He was a friendly creature) , followed by a noun. For the meaning of grammatically significant word endings such as «ly», see «Suffixes Used to Form Parts of Speech» in the Appendix to Part I (WP).

II. B. Below are a set of sentences with nonsense words. In the blanks provided, replace each nonsense word with some meaningful word, so that the resulting sentence is well-formed and meaningful. Use your knowledge of the meaning aspects of word forms and their functions in English.

1. The clonks were wimbling pootishly.                                                                                                      

The_______ were______ ing______ ly.

2 . Have you beller spiggled a _____?

Have you______er______ ed a _____?

3. This om the bodgiest puckle in the Hitch.

This______the ____iest ______in the ___ .

4. Greezzy fubbles should blably be shifted.

____ у______s should _____ly be _____ ed.

5. You can skritch your Cripples and plutch them into your trinks . You can____________ your_______s

and_____them into your______s .

What clues did you use to decide what parts of speech to choose to fill in the blanks?

II. C. In his novel, The Clockwise Orange, Anthony Burgess created a special lexicon (i.e., a list of words with their meanings) for his characters. To be understood, he depended upon his readers' background knowledge of the criminal world (presumably acquired second-hand, from reading and seeing «thrillers»). But he also depended upon their knowledge of the forms and functions of words in ordinary English.

What sense can you make of the following passage taken from The Clockwork Orange?

Then we slooshied the sirens and knew the millicents were coming with pooshkas pushing out of the police auto-windows at the ready. That little weepy devotchka had told them there being a box for calling the rozzes not too far behind the Muni Power Plant.

 

SECTION III

EVALUATE YOUR WORD KNOWLEDGE

How large is your English vocabulary? Do you need to have precise knowledge of every word in order to be able to under­stand a text? Is it sometimes enough to have only a vague idea about some of the words? Is it sometimes all right to ignore a difficult word, hoping you will be able to figure out what it means after further reading?

1. Evaluate your word knowledge (decontextualized). The following words come from Sublist 1 of A University Word List, prepared by Xue Guo-yi and Paul Nation, reprinted in Language and Communication, 3(2), 1984).

How well do you know each of them? (place the appropri­ate symbol before each word.)

i. 0 = no knowledge,

ii. ? = some knowledge,

iii. + = knowledge (discriminating knowledge, i.e. you can translate it, can give a definition, can understand it fully in reading and can use it productively in writing.)

alternative

arbitrary

assume

concept

constant

criterion

denote

dimension

element

equivalent

evident

guarantee

ignore

imply

interpret

method

negative

presume

publish

range

restrict

specify

suffice

tense

valid

 

analyse

assess

compensate

conclude

construct

data

derive

distinct

environment

establish

facilitate

hypothesis

illustrate

indicate

involve

minimum

obvious

prime

pursue

region

role

status

summary

ultimate

vary

 

approach

assign

complex

consist

context

define

devise

dominate

equate

evaluate

formula

identify

impact

initial

magnitude

modify

potential

proceed

random

require

similar

subsequent

technique

usage

vertical

 

 

 

2. Underline ten difficult words in one of the texts in this book as you read it, and before you reach for a dictionary.

A. How important is it for you to know each of these words in order to understand the text? (Evaluate the importance on a scale of 1-5: (O) = of no importance; (5) — crucial)

B. How important is it for you to know these words for your general/personal vocabulary? (Evaluate the im­portance on a score of 1-5: (О) — of no importance; (5) = crucial)

3. Strategies available for learning and remembering a new word:

1. Internal context (analysing word structure — prefixbase — suffix)

2. Association of the new word with words that look the same (i.e., have the same base, or stem)

3. External context (studying the words, phrase or sentence(s) just preceding or just following the unfamil­iar word)

4. Aural and/or visual cues (associating the word with some sound or image)

5. Native language equivalents (associating the word with its equivalent in your native language)

6. Synonyms (associating the word with word(s) of similar meaning )

7. Antonyms (associating the word with word(s) of opposite or contrastive meaning)

8. Collocations (associating the word with words that go together with it, i.e. coffee or tea)

9. Placing the word within a semantic field — (groups of words used in relation to a given topic or scene)

 

SECTION IV

THE WORD IN THE DICTIONARY

Some dictionaries you may want to examine:

American College Dictionary

Random House

College Dictionary Concise Oxford

Webster Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary

Longman's Dictionary of Contemporary English (Advanced Learners' Dictionary)

(4.1) Information Available in Some Dictionaries

1. Spelling (and various acceptable spellings, when there is more than one of these for a given word [e.g. color, colour])

2a. Various related Usages should be indicated — i.e. , us­ages that are closely related to each other so that they can be listed together — (usually in the order of the frequency with which they are used) under a single entry (e.g. «radical» as used in political science or in mathematics or linguistics) .

2b. Examples should be given of each usage (sentences or phrases in each of which the given word is used differently: i.e., has a slightly different «meaning»). E.g. «discipline» as «training» or «punishment», or as «an area of instruction».

3. Homographs — there may be separate listings for words that are spelled alike but are different in other ways. They may be pronounced differently, they may belong to different word classes (e.g., noun, verb, adjective, etc....) or they may be com­pletely different in meaning.

(e.g. flock (noun) — a group of animals or people

flock (verb) — to gather in large numbers

flock (noun) — (1) small pieces of wool, cotton, etc., used for filling cushions. (2) soft material that forms decorated pat­terns on the surface of wallpaper, curtains, etc.

4. Abbreviations — there may be a separate listing for the abbreviated form of a word (e.g., «Dr.» and «Doctor») (See also: Abbreviations, Unit 3 of WP Appendix, [Section X]).

5. Capitalization — there may be separate listings for the capitalized and uncapitalized forms of certain words that have a specific meaning when they are written with a capital letter.

e.g. reformation — the act of improving something

Reformation — a 16th century European religious movement

6. Syllabification — there may be an indication of the cor­rect way to divide the word. This information is necessary in writing, when we have room for only part of the word at the end of a line. It also helps us too see what parts the word is made of (which is useful for guessing its meaning).

Divide the words anonymous and anthropology according to the divisions indicated in your dictionary. What symbol does your dictionary use to indicate how this is to be done?

7. Pronunciation — Look up the pronunciation of the fol­lowing words: (a.) «ancillary» (b.) «harass». What symbols are used to indicate how to pronounce these words? Where are these symbols explained? Sometimes a word is spelled the same way, but pronounced differently, for each of its different gram­matical roles. (E.g., «estimate», as a noun; «estimate», as a verb.) Look up the word «estimate» to see how it is pronounced in each of its roles.

8. Parts of Speech — For each word there should be an indication of its Word classes or parts of speech: (e.g., verb (v.); noun (n.); adjective (adj.); adverb (adv.) etc. It's useful to know that the same form of the word can serve more than one function (i.e. , fill more than one position in the sentence). Look up the word «form» in a good dictionary. What different functions can it serve? (See also «Parts of speech», Unit I of section V in Part II.)

9. Other information about verbs:-

A. There should be an indication of whether a verb is trans. (transitive) or intr. (intransitive), i.e., whether or not it is fol­lowed by a direct object. You may find that some verbs (like «guess») can be used either way (trans. and intr.) B. Irregular inflections of verbs should be indicated; e.g. irregular forms of the past and past perfect; swim, swam; put, put; to be — am, is, are, was, were. C. Information about Phrasal Verbs is use­ful. Sometimes called two-part verbs, these consist of a verb and a specific adverb (e.g. to give out) or preposition (e.g. to look after). These have a different meaning from the meaning of the verb alone (e.g. to give or to look), and they may have separate listings.

10 . Other information about nouns:

A. There should be an indication of what type of Noun it is i.e., Countable (C), or Uncountable (U)). This is useful for deciding whether to use it with a singular or plural verb; what determiner (the, a, much, many, etc.) to use with it; and with what pronoun (sing. or plural) to replace it. B. Irregular inflec­tions of nouns should be indicated: e.g., irregular plural forms such as «child», «children»; «candy», «candies»; «phenomenon», «phenomena»; «datum», «data».

11. Other Information about Usage:— Become familiar with the labels used in your dictionary to give information about the use or function of the word in the language. What do you think the following labels indicate about the word?

standard/ non-standard; Brit./ Am., colloq. (colloquial), slang; obs. (obsolete); arch. (archaic); Black

English; abbrev. (abbreviation). (See «Abbreviations»,Unit 2 of WP Appendix, [Section X]).

Without bothering to look these up, how do you think a good dictionary might label the following:

a. «You're gonna make it hot for us.»

b. theater, theatre; color, colour; favor, favour

c. Thine honour has been ruined.

d. Ain't you pretty!?

e. Have a «nash»?

12. Compound words — these are separate words that have a special meaning when they appear together (without a hy­phen — ) and hence may be listed as a single entry under the first of the two words. E.g. hot air; hot dog; hot plate; hot pot; hot line

Sometimes the two words are actually joined together, and you will learn this from the fact that they are listed as a single word e.g. hothouse, hotfoot, hothead.

Sometimes the two words are joined by a hyphen, and this too, will be indicated by the form of the dictionary entry: e.g. hot-blooded.

13. Synonyms and Antonyms — A good dictionary will also list words that are similar in meaning to, or opposite in mean­ing from, the word you have looked up (i.e., its synonyms and antonyms). Some dictionaries list the synonyms and antonyms under the most frequently used word. E.g., under «injury» the American College Dictionary lists the following synonyms (syn.): hurt, wound, and the following antonym (ant.), benefit.

14. Etymology, or word derivations— It is sometimes use­ful to know whether the word was originally Latin, Greek, German, French, Spanish, etc., and when it came into the English language). (Most college-level dictionaries supply this information.) E.g. if you look up the word «refusenik» which is listed in some dictionaries published after 1974, you will learn that «refusenik» is a new formation from «refuse» and the Slavic suffix «-nik».(See also «nudnik»). See also «It's All Greek» in part III below.

 

(4.2) Learning how to get most out of a Dictionary

Dictionary Exercise:

1. Words of high and low frequency (in terms of usage). Is it enough for you to just deal with words that are com­mon (of high frequency) or does your bibliographical and col­lege level reading also require you to be familiar with words of lower frequency (words that are not commonly used)? Does your dictionary list words that are rarely used, or that are tech­nical terms peculiar to certain areas of knowledge? Does it include rare usages under commonly used words?

(a) Check the word «radical» in your dictionary. Do you find a mathematical and chemical or scientific meaning of the word as well as a meaning from the area of political science?

(b) Check the following (rarely used) words and see if they are in your dictionary  

                                      (i) aardvark

(ii) eleemosynary

2. Range of Definitions

Does your dictionary make available to you a range of mean­ings i.e. words which may be used in a technical /non-techni­cal sense? See example of «radical» above. Judging by what you found under «radical», would you say your dictionary pro­vides a broad, or narrow, range of definitions?

3. Order of Listings

How are different meanings of the word indicated in your dictionary? Does your dictionary follow any particular order in listing different meanings? I.e. does it give the most common or most typical meaning first?

4. Multi-meaning Words

How does your dictionary enter multi-meaning words? — as one entry, with several different meanings? with several dif­ferent entries? (a) How many meanings does your dictionary have for the word «hold»? (b) what is the meaning of the word «hold» in each of the following?

a. to hold hands

b. Hold the merchandise for me, please.

c. The call is on hold.

d. His performance can hold them spellbound.

e. We will hold the meeting on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

f. Will you hold back on that publication, please?

g. Who holds the major political offices? the minor ones?

h. This bottle holds 8 c.c.

i. I hold these truths to be self-evident. J. I hold him to be the best applicant.

k. He managed to hold the hostage for 18 hours before releasing him.

Does your dictionary contain all of these meanings or did you have to work out the meanings from the context?

5. Find one of each of the following types of dictionaries:

a. a bilingual dictionary (English-Russian, English French, etc.)

b. an English — English Learners' Dictionary c. an English — English College Dictionary Look up the underlined words in the following sentences in each of these dictionaries. Note the differences in the entries of the various dictionaries for the same word. (Be prepared to find that some dictionaries do not list them at all.)

1. The University cannot function on eleemosynary contri­butions alone.

2. The number of civil service posts held by people of indig­enous origin was small.

3. Students are often recalcitrant about paying their fees.

4. NATO is an organization that serves many countries.

(4.3) Dictionary Questionnaire* and some                                                                                   First-year Student Responses

* from: Appendix C in Abigail Newback and Andrew D. Cohen, «Processing Strate­gies and Problems Encountered in the Use of Dictionaries». Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America, No. 10, 1988.

 (A)   1. What is your general attitude toward the use of dictionaries?

— «I try not to use a dictionary a lot because that is a way to test myself and see if I can manage without using it.»

2. Do you like using dictionaries?

— «I hate using a dictionary because it takes me out of concentration and I hate searching for the words.»

3. Do you feel that dictionaries help you?

— «Yes. The dictionary helps me most of the time, be­cause I use it only when I really need it.»

4. When do you usually feel that you need the assistance of a dictionary?

— «Impossible I prefer using the context of the sentence itself to define an unknown word in that sentence. How­ever, when this does not work the assistance of a dictio­nary is O.K.»

5. Do you have any special difficulties while using a dictionary?

— «Sometimes the definitions of one word are too sub­tly different.»

— «The only difficulty I have while using a dictionary is when there is more than one meaning to the word and I can't pick the best one.»

6. Which type of dictionary do you prefer? Why?

— «I prefer thinking in English while studying English, so I use an English — English dictionary.»

    «I prefer the English — Russian dictionary because it's the easiest. But I use the English — English because it's the best way to learn.»

(B) How would you respond to each of the above questions?

 

SECTION V

CONNOTATION

Many words have both a PRIMARY and a SECONDARY meaning. The PRIMARY meaning of a word is its denotation — i.e., what the word explicitly signifies. The SECONDARY meaning of a word is its CONNOTATION. This is the ADDI­TIONAL 'meaning that a word takes on from the types of contexts in which it is most frequently found. Some word have POSITIVE CONNOTATIONS, some have NEGATIVE CON­NOTATIONS, and some are NEUTRAL (i.e., they simply denote a concept without coloring it positively or negatively).

Often a writer implies his attitude or point of view by choos­ing words that have positive or negative connotations when there are neutral equivalents that he might have chosen in­stead. Conversely, he might express his unwillingness to take sides on an issue by using neutral terms wherever possible.

Consider the effect of the words having positive or negative connotations (in contrast to their neutral equivalents) in the following pairs of statements.

1. He purports to be happy in his work. (negative, implying a false claim) He claims to be happy in his work. (neutral)

2. He built himself a house, (neutral)

He built himself a home. (positive, implying a place of warmth, comfort and affection)

3. He entered the studio, (neutral)

He invaded the studio, (negative, implying an unwelcome intrusion)

4. He was youthful in appearance, (positive) He was juvenile in appearance, (negative, implying   imma­turity )

5. He decided to leave his job. (neutral) He decided to abandon his job. (negative, implying deser­tion)

6. She dedicated herself to feeding her family, (neutral) She dedicated herself to nourishing her family, (positive, implying that the feeder maintains life)

7. He was a profound thinker. (positive, implying extreme penetration into the subjects of his thought) He was a deep thinker, (neutral)

Sometimes the same word has somehow acquired various connotations. The reader must then pay close attention to the context in which it appears if he wants to infer an implied attitude. Consider the way in which the change of context changes the connotation of the underlined words in the sen­tences below.

8. Hercules was a mythical figure, (neutral).

        The story he gave the press was entirely mythical.

(negative, implying falsehood)

9. He told a funny story, (neutral)

There's something funny about the letter, (negative,  implying cause for suspicion) What connotation does the  underlined word have in the following sentences?

10. That was a fantastic meal. (       )

He was troubled by fantastic dreams. (        )

 

SECTION VI

A STRUCTURAL APPROACH TO WORD STUDY

 

Internal Structure/Context

Prefixes — Bases — Suffixes (see Unit 1 of WP Appendix [Section X])

6.1 Decoding the word correctly (noting exactly how the word looks)

Read aloud each of the following sets of words and think about the meaning of each word in the set. What element/s is/ are important for distinguishing between the different words? Add a word or a pair of words to each set, showing the same element of difference.

1. boot, booth; book;__________ (different end con­sonants)

2. bed; bud;___________________ (different vowels)

3. scheme — scene;____________(the addition or omission of a consonant before and/or after the vowel)

4. undeveloped-underdeveloped;_______ (a change in the prefix) underemployed-unemployed;

5. apprehensive-apprehension _______ (a change in the suffix, indicating a different part of speech)

6.2 Recognition of Consonant Blends in English

In the following list, circle consonant blends that you recognize as being found in English words. Supply a word using each of the latter blends (i.e. «ph» = phenomenon).


bl, br, bxt, cl, cr, ct, dt, dw, fr, fs, gl, gr, lr, nk, pi, pr, qu, sc, sch, sl, sm, sn, sp, spl, sq, st, str, sw, tch, thr, tw, wh

Which of the following combinations may also be found in words used in English? (Use a dictionary, if you aren't sure, to see if any words begin with them, and if so, how these words are pronounced.)

kn, psy, mn, pn, gn

6.3 Words have structure.

Individual letters > syllables > units of meaning.

A word in English always has a base, or stem (e.g. estab­lish). It may also have a prefix and a suffix (e.g. dis establish ment). It may also have more than one prefix: (e.g. un pro ductive (note that the base is the same as in re ductive; de ductive); un pro voked (note that the base is the same as in re voked); un per formed (note that the base is the same as in re formed) . And it may also have more than one suffix: e.g. profit able ness (in which the base is «profit»).

+/- PREFIXES + BASE +/- SUFFIXES

A prefix has invariable meaning or a few constants of mean­ing. A suffix may also have grammatical meaning (i.e. it can tell us if the word is used as a verb, noun, adjective, or adverb) in addition to «meaning» meaning.

Circle the prefix, block out the base, and underline the suffix in each of the following words . Then decide what parts of speech the word can be used as (the suffix will tell you) . Sometimes the same suffix can indicate more than one part of speech (e.g. , «explosive,» which can be used as a noun or an adjective).

international induction presupposition detective

homogeneous      reproductive     unfamiliar

6.4 Invariable position of word part

Reorder each of the following sets of word-parts so that each set makes a meaningful word.

Example: -ical, bio-, auto-, graph = autobiographical

 

1. marry, -age, -ity, abil-

2. on, -ment, -vir-, en-, al, -ism

3. -sible, -in, -pre-, corn, -hen

6.5 Meaningful prefix or not?

The first syllable may look like a detachable English prefix, when actually it is an integral part of the base (it cannot be separated from the base and analysed for meaning). Therefore, you must be careful, when trying to guess the meaning of an unfamiliar word, not to assume automatically that what looks like a prefix is in fact always that.

In each of the following sets of words, circle the word that does have a detachable prefix.

disappointment, disciple, disapproval (dis = showing an opposite or negative)

unanimous, unlawful, undisguised (un = a negation, a lack, or an opposite)

illegal, illegitimate, illusion (il = a negation, a lack, or an opposition)

pregnant, presupposition, predetermined (pre = before)

abnormal, able, abduction (ab = away from)

religion, renegotiate, reenact (re = again, or back)

biannual, bigotted, bilateral (bi = two, twice or double)

6.6 Word derivation

From a single word base, you may be able to construct many other words. The following are derivations of the base «edit». Divide them into noun, verb, and adjectival categories. edit: edition, editorialize; editor, editorial; editorialization

Nouns : Verbs : Adjectives :

6.7 Productive word parts — Chaining

Circle the part of the word which is repeated in the adjacent word. Explain the meaning of the word part in the word.

socialism     sociology         biology

theism                                  biography

theocracy     democracy      demography

 

Can you determine the meaning of the following words by analysing their parts?

atheism, atypical, specialize, nationalize, synthesize, sum­marize, bibliography, chronology, terminology?

Can you make up a new chain?

6.8 Creation of new words

On the basis of your knowledge of the words in Column I can you make an «educated» guess about the meaning of the (invented) words alongside them? (It is acceptable to invent a word when no word exists as yet for the concept you have in mind.)

Column I

1. cafeteria groceteria, washeteria

2. hierarchy «lowerarchy»

3. channel  chunnel

4. tunnel    hamburger pizzaburger, fishburger, soyaburger

5. shortages longages*

What do you think «ruburban» or «comdramatist» might mean?

* See «Filters Against Folly,» in Part III

 

6.9 Web of Relationships

Can you access the meaning of the words in the web in relation to the base word in the center?

apathetic                          pathology empathy                                   pathologist — patho —

sympathy              pathogenic pathological           pathos           apathy

6.10 Word parts — variable/invariable meaning Prefixes. How many of the following prefixes do you know? Indicate the meaning of each prefix and suggest a word in which it appears.

a, ambi, amphi, auto, bene, by, circu, circum, со, col, corn, con, contra, de, dis, dys, e, ex, en, entre, inter, intra, hyper, hypo, it, im, in, infra, ir, macro, micro, maxi midi, mini, mis, non, off, out, over, pan, pre, pro, pseudo, quasi, re, retro, sym, syn, ultra, under, vice, with.

6.11 Who Can Count??? (Word elements having numerical meaning)*

Identify the numerical elements in each of the following words. Make a number chart ranging from the smallest unit to the largest.

* (See also, «Quantitative prefixes» in Unit 1 of WP Appendix, [Section X]).

 

monarchy, bilateral, pentagon, septuagint, decade, quadraplegic, centennial, primary, hemisphere, dichotomy, unified, trimester, quadrant, quintuplet, semicolon, millenium, octagonal, hexagon, septet, octave, decalogue, trilogy, mo­nopoly, sextet, omnipotent, polygamous,multiracial, myriad, oligarchy, twilight, twice, twins.

SECTION VII

A CONTEXTUAL APPROACH TO WORD STUDY

A) Contextual clues to the meaning of the words in the sentence.

In addition to the Internal Context of Structure clues for a word, (see Section VI of WP above) readers are frequently told to find the meaning of an unknown word in the surrounding context — i.e. from the words or phrases before or after the unknown word «X». This is wonderful advice if it works: un­fortunately, the context does not always provide the reader with the clues needed. The following exercises are designed to help you recognize the contextual clues, if and when they exist in your text.

Deriving Meaning from Context                                                                                                           (Do not use a dictionary for these exercises)

 

7.1 The context can sometimes help you with the meaning of an unknown word without your having to go to the dictio­nary. Although there are severe limits to the meaning the con­text alone can give, it can help to reveal meaning in several ways. Try to figure out the meaning of each of the difficult words in the examples below:

1. The context can help by re-stating the idea expressed by the word (i.e., by providing a definition). Most organisms are aerobes; that is, they require oxygen to live.

«aerobe» means: ______________________.

2. The context can help by restating the idea expressed by the difficult word using several simpler words. The Germans left the Czech village of Lidice devastated: it was totally de­stroyed.

«devastated» means: ____________________.

3. The context can help by providing examples illustrating the meaning of the difficult word: Innards, such as hearts, kidneys and livers, are eaten more enthusiastically in some cultures than in others.

«Innards» means: _____________________.

4. The context can help by telling us what the word does not mean (here introduced by the word «but», signalling a contrasting idea) . The word "sea" usually refers to a body of water that is saline, but the water in the Sea of Galilee is relatively sweet.

«saline» means: ______________________.

5. The context can help by allowing us to infer the meaning of the word from what it tells us about the concept that the word refers to. The doorway was so low that when he entered the room he hit his head on the lintel.

«lintel» means:_______________________.

6. The context can help by telling us what facts lying in the storehouse of our general knowledge we should call on for help.

Of all the five senses, the one dogs depend upon most is the olfactory sense.

«Olfactory» means:_____________________.

Exercise B:

Determine the meaning of each underlined word from the context. You may write the meanings in Russian.

1. Insect fecundity is frightening: many kinds of insects lay hundreds or even thousands of eggs at one time. «fecundity» means»:_____________________.

2. Mozart manifested his dislike of Salzburg by choosing to live much of his life outside that city.

«to manifest» means:____________________.

3. Many works of art were salvaged from the flood in Flo­rence in 1966, but Cimabue's «Crucifix» was very badly dam­aged.

«to salvage» means:_____________________.

4. Dr. Burns's research sounded much more impressive when he described it as petrology rather than simply the study of rocks.

«petrology» means:_____________________.

5. Scientists rejected first the idea of a geocentric universe and then of a heliocentric one as they discovered that neither the earth nor the sun is at the center of the universe.

«geocentric» means: _____________________.

«heliocentric» means: _____________________.

6. The terminal points of the Egged bus lines 9 and 28 are Mt. Scopus and Givat Ram.

«Terminal» means: _____________________.

7. Through Conan Doyle's stories the character of Sherlock Holmes has taken on so much verisimilitude that we tend to forget that, in reality, there was no such person.

«verisimilitude» means:__________________.

8. One characteristic property of gases is their thermal ex­pansion: all gases increase in volume when their temperature is raised.

«thermal» means:______________________.

9. Psychologists also study normal behavior, but they are particularly concerned with behavior that is deviant.

«deviant» means:______________________.

10. The best example of a true social isolate would be a feral child, provided a child could actually be found who had had no contact whatsoever with human society, and had been reared in the wilderness by animals.

«isolate» means :______________________.

«feral» means :_______________________.

11. The theme of a novel may be primarily didactic, and this teaching may be moral or social.

«didactic» means: _____________________.

 

7.2. Use of words indicating Spatial (Alternative spelling: «Spacial» ) Orientation or Movement

These words can be used both literally (to indicate an actual movement or position in space), or metaphorically (to indicate something like movement or position). Deter­mine whether the use of the underlined spatial words is Lit­eral (L) or Metaphorical (M) in each of the following sen­tences.

__ 1. But since the boundaries of Islam extend far beyond those of Iran what constitutes Iran's «self-defence» becomes highly ambiguous.

__ 2. Iran protested the next day , contending that its plane had been attacked over «international waters», while the Saudis said that the plane had been downed in «Saudi» territo­rial waters.

__ 3. It was not until much later that pan-Turkism and pre-Arabism appeared on the political horizon and, even then, there is some doubt as to what they really sig­nified.

__ 4. The barrier separating the rich and the poor is sel­dom crossed.

__ 5. He was deeply in debt.

__ 6. Prices soared sky-high.

__ 7. He followed the ups and downs of the stock market.

__ 8. He arrived at a landmark decision during his first year as a judge.

B) Value Clues. You may find contextual clues relating to the worth or desirability of, or to the affect or emotion aroused by, the difficult word.

a. Indicate whether the underlined words in the fol­lowing sentences convey a positive or a negative mean­ing.

b. Underline the other words in the sentence that serve as value clues to the meaning of the difficult word.

1. The critic commended the work for its intellectual hon­esty.

2. Domestic effluents destroyed the formerly beautiful environment.

3. The sonorous bells awakened the villagers to another peaceful Sunday.

4. Beware of predatory men.

5. She was insulted by his condescension.

C. Function Clues:

Function clues relate to what someone or something does; how it, s/he functions.

7.3 In each of the following sentences, indicate the words or phrases which help us to understand how the underlined word functions.

1. The foundation provides grants and scholarships to de­serving students.

2. The minister was incarcerated in the Tower of London, where they held him until he was brought to trial.

3. They respected his anonymity by refusing to reveal his name and address.

4. The effect of his chicanery was to make everybody dis­trust everything he ever said or did thereafter.

 

SECTION VIII

SEMANTIC FIELDS

 

UNIT A: AREAS, SCRIPTS, TOPICS, CATEGORIES

When learning new vocabulary , try to attach the new words to something previously learned. It helps if you try to categorize or group related words that share a «semantic field» (an area of meaning) . In English it pays to focus on the way a word looks (as opposed to the way it sounds) when trying to decide what other words it might be related to. (Many words sound alike but are spelled very differently. Chances are they are very different in meaning e.g. bare — bear; affect — ef­fect.)

8. 1 Semantic Fields

List at least 5 words you associate with each of the follow­ing areas. Do any of your words cross areas?

 

ECONOMICS PSYCHOLOGY RELIGION MUSIC YOUR OWN FIELD OF STUDY

8. 2 The Vocabulary of the Script

Think of at least 5 words which relate to each of the follow­ing «scenes». Do any of your words cross scenes?

A RESTAURANT THE LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY THE DENTIST

8. 3 Suggest a Topic

For each of the following word sets, suggest an area to which it relates, the topic of a text in which you are most likely to find most of the words. I. leaders, executives, abili­ties, |2. nuclear weapons, aggression, manager, performance, |geopolitical considerations, job, production, supervisor, |de­terrence, restraint, selection, qualities, attributes, |attack, ci­vilian targets personality traits Do any of these words cross topics?

8. 4 Imagine a Scene — Suggest a Script

What do all the following words have in common? For each of them, imagine a specific scene that it suggests. Tip ransom allowance refund honorarium bounty tuition retainer bonus rent fare child support bus money wage salary reward alimony prize

8. 5 Identify the Topic

In the following short «text» , what words are used to identify and to refer to the topic? What is the topic? What replacement or substitution words or phrases are used instead of repeating it? Is there any ellipsis (word(s) or idea(s) left out)?

«Did Gordon give us any work to do for tomorrows?»

«Of course! 5 pages to read and ten questions to an­swer.»

«Have you finished doing it?»

«Yes, most of it».

«Does that mean I can get it from you this evening?»

«Yes, if you'll do the same favor for me some time.»

8. 6 Co — reference or Synonymous Reference

In each of the following sets, some of the words have more in common with each other than they do with the other words in the set. Group together those words in each set which share a common meaning. Specify what you think that meaning is.

1. obligatory, compulsory, binding, voluntary, enforceable

2. legal, bona fide, legitimate, illicit, lawful

3. rule, law, institution, custom, violation, precedent, prin­ciple, standard

4. allow, permit, grant, sanction, censure

5. calm, concerned, anguished, distressed, agitated

6. achievement, calamity, catastrophe, disaster

7. provoke, please, irritate, annoy

8. dispute, disagreement, accord, argument, strain

9. biased, prejudiced, subjective, objective

10. conclude, deduce, infer, introduce

11. judge, appraise, evaluate, ignore, assess

12. anticipation, expectation, retrospection, plan, inten­tion

Other Useful Groupings of Words

Words of related or overlapping meaning can sometimes be interchanged. They usually vary, however, in the degree to which they express a given concept.

8.7 Downtoners and Emphasizers

Words that are related in meaning may be positioned on a continuum according to the degree to which they express a given quality .

a.       Position the following set of words on the continuum going from too little (insufficient) to too much (superfluous)..

An Insufficient Amount                                                                                                  A Superfluous Amount

generous, bountiful, ample, scarce, plentiful, sufficient, ex­cessive, impoverished, adequate, lavish, deficient, sparse, skimpy, profuse, substantial, meagre, adequate, limited, abun­dant

If we want to strengthen or weaken a value word, we can choose an emphasizer to make it even stronger, or a downtoner to make it weaker.

b. Place the following sets of emphasizers on a continuum:

Emphasizers: certainly, definitely, fully, terribly, thoroughly, absolutely, completely, entirely, enormously, intensely, etc.

c. Place the following sets of downtoners on a continuum.

Downtoners: partly, almost, slightly, hardly, moderately, scarcely, possibly, quite, somewhat, rather, etc.. Combine words from a. and b. and a. and c. to illustrate the strengthening or weakening effect.

8.8 Place each of the following word sets on a scale as indicated . A scale of:

1. size — from small to large

huge, immense, microscopic, giant, minuscule, consider­able, gargantuan, titanic, mammoth, miniature, massive, dwarf-like, average, colossal, infinitesimal

2. probability — from improbable to likely

feasible, apt, likely, certain, definite, doubtful, conclusive, sure, impossible, decided, possible

3. frequency — from infrequent to frequent

often, seldom, occasionally, never, once in a while, eventu­ally, rarely, hardly ever, sometimes, hardly

4. quantity — from a little to a lot

much, many, few, hardly any, a mere few, a lot more than, most, a mere handful, the bulk of, the majority, massive amounts, some, several, a minority, not more than, somewhat less than, an infinite amount, countless, innumerable, num­berless

5. quality — from inferior to superior

excellent, shabby, precious, rare, poor, genuine, good, feeble, sophisticated, crude, fine, rough

6. development — from increasing to decreasing

magnify, enlarge, minimize, supplement, multiply, augment, swell, reduce, prolong, diminish, expand, extend, amplify, maximize, shrink, condense, contract, miniaturize

7. disagreement/agreement — from, disagreement to agree­ment

balance, accord, discord, concord, confluence, harmony, concurrence, unanimity, cooperation, disharmony, disunity, dis­sonance, congruence, consensus, dissent, dissention, controversy

8 helpfulness — from hidrance to help,

benefit, hindrance, impediment, prevention, support, aid, prophylactic, assistance, obstruction, restraint, restriction, fur­therance, repression, suppression, fosterage, sponsorship

9. achievement — from failure to success

attainment, failure, success, accomplishment, prosperity, fulfillment, realization, completion, perfection, consummation, triumph, breakdown, downfall, collapse, crash

8.9 Male/Female Words

While English is not considered a «gender» language in the sense that all words are specifically «marked» masculine or feminine, there are some words that are specifically masculine or feminine.

Place the following words in the appropriate column: «male», «female», or «unmarked». Indicate whether any of these words have any further specified meaning. (E.g. mullah — male [ in Islamic countries), title of respect for a person who is learned in, teaches or expounds the sacred law; ii. [in Turkey] a pro­vincial judge.)

queen

minister

mother

priest

child

politician

employee

adolescent

nurse

Esquire (Esq.)

Mrs.

actress

princess

director

lass

lad

soldier

waiter

chairman

astronaut

Ms.

spinster

master

stewardess

conductor

caliph

mistress

nun

ballerina

maiden

Mr.

bachelor

 

UNIT B: LANGUAGE OF RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS IN SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES (“Hedging”)

 

8.10 Hedging Words — the Language of Results and Con­clusions

8.10.1 Results and Conclusions:

The following statements have been taken from a psychol­ogy article reporting on an experiment set up to study the reactions of witnesses to an accident. Which of the statements reports a Result (R) of the experiment and which represents a Conclusion (C)? Is there a difference in the language of the reporting?

_ 1. It is not our impression that the non-responders had decided not to act. Rather, they were still in a state of non-decision.

_ 2. Subjects who had met the victim were faster to report his distress than other persons from sixperson groups.

_ 3. The groups ranked the same on speed as they did on response rate.

_ 4. Apparently the ability to visualize a specific distressed individual increases the likelihood of helping him.

_ 5. The situation created an avoidance-avoidance type conflict. On the one hand, subjects wanted to avoid guilt and shame for not helping; on the other hand, they wanted to avoid making fools of themselves by over-reacting.

_ 6. The behavior of other bystanders and the relationship among them seem to be important.

_ 7. A stranger who has been programmed not to react is the most inhibiting, a neutral stranger next; and a friend the least.

_ 8. Of those who heard the accident while alone in the waiting room, 70 percent offered to help the victim before she left the room.

8.10.2 Language of «Hedging»

Place the following words or expressions on a continuum from UNCERTAIN to CERTAIN

UNCERTAIN____________________________CERTAIN

                              1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

a. Undoubtedly...                              g. In our opinion...

b. It seems...                                     h. We may conclude that...

c. Surely...                                        i. It may be assumed that...

d. It may be that...                            j. The results are clearly...

e. I am not all that certain that...      k. Possibly...

f. It is not at all certain that...           l. this suggests that...

 

UNIT C: TERMS USED IN STUDY AND TEST SITUATIONS

8.11 Which of the terms in the following list expresses what each of the teachers has in mind?

identify; evaluate; draw a diagram of; review; enumerate; cause; compare; analysis; summarize; analyze; describe, out­line; list; justify; define.

1. A music teacher wants the class to show that they under­stand clearly the meaning of some special terms used in music

He would ask them to _________________ the term.

2. A literature instructor wants students to demonstrate their understanding of the similarities in two poems written at dif­ferent times and places. He would ask them to__________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________ the poems.

3. A political science teacher wants the class to give a sympat­hetic version of why the United States sent troops into a certain country. He would ask them to___________________________________the inva­sion.

4. Next, the students are expected to give an objective view of this same event. He would ask them to give the_____________________________________________ of the invasion.

5. Music students are expected to mention all the contribu­tions of jazz to modern music. They would be asked to ____________________________ these contributions.

6. A Shakespeare instructor wants students to present a clear picture of the construction of the Elizabethan stage. He would ask them to_________________________ the stage.

7. A history teacher wants the class to show that they know the main stages in the development of industrial power in En­gland. He would ask them to provide an___________________________________of these stages.

8. Students in an art class are assigned a painting by another member of the class; they must mention its strengths and weaknesses and decide whether or not it was successful. They would be asked to ___________ and to __________________________it.

9. A class in Spanish history is expected to present briefly an account of the development of Franco's political views. They would be asked to___________this development.

10. Students are given a list of names of people and places; they are expected to tell who or what these names represent. They would be asked to__________the items on the list.

11. A sociology teacher wants the class to give a thoughtful statement concerning the various aspects of the role of televi­sion in the lives of preschool children. He would ask them to provide an____________of the subject.

 

 SECTION IX

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

A writer frequently uses figurative language in order to ex­plain an idea: to explain a new idea in terms of an image or association with something familiar, or to make this idea more «colorful». One way to understand figurative language is to try to capture the qualities, properties or characteristics of the al­ready known image and relate what is relevant to the new idea.

Some frequent images that are used in figurative language are words related to,

i. Body parts

ii. Animals

iii. Light/Dark

iv. The Weather

v. The Military

1. Suggest what a writer wants to express by each of the following: the brow of a hill, the mouth of a river; the voice of the town; the heart of the matter; the sinews of war; the hands of time; to live from hand to mouth. Can you suggest any other such images related to body parts?

2. What do you think the writer means when he says: it's a dog's life; she's a snake, he's a pig; he's a mule; the month of March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb; I got it straight from the horse's mouth, you're being catty; she looks mousey; they're nothing but sheep!

3. What do you think the writer wants us to understand by each of the following expressions: to throw light on the matter; he wants to be shown in the best light possible; he's in the limelight now; it's an illuminating idea, what a brilliant piece of work! don't always be so gloomy; that was a dark day; The Age of Enlightenment; I see a brighter future; there are sunny prospects for the oil industry; the future looks bleak.

4. Examine the following statements, phrases or headlines and indicate what the writer wants to express when he says:

a. cutthroat competition

b. we're bending over backwards to please them.

c. The recovery of Fiat and VW follows a period when the economy has been ailing.

d. The strike fizzled out.

e. Ben and Jerry's (an ice cream firm) is getting fat on America's growing appetite for super-premium ice cream.

f. They planted $500,000 in seed money for the research.

g. The Conservatives routed the Labor party at the elections and Labor has been in retreat ever since.

5. Suggest other examples of figurative language that you have encountered in readings in this course. (See especially What Is A Historical Fact?, in Part IV.)

 

SECTION X

APPNDIX

 

UNIT 1: PREFIXES, STEMS, (ROOTS) SUFFIXES

A: PREFIXES

Prefix

 

Ab-, abs—

(a-,an-)

 

ad-(ac-,af-,

ag-,al-,ap-

ar-,as-,at-)

ambi-

amphi-

ana-

ante-

anti-

arch-

auto-

bi-

by-

circum-

con-(co-,col-

corn-,cor-)

 

Usual Meaning

 

away from, without,

lacking

 

to, toward

 

 

both

around, on both sides

back, again, out of

before

against

first, chief

self

two, twice

close, incidental

around

- with, together

 

 

Examples

 

Abnormal, abstract, abnegate,

Amoral, Amazon, anonymous,

Apathethic, aversion

accede, adhere, aggressive,

affix, allow, appeal, arrest,

assert, attendance

ambiguous, ambidextrous

amphibious, amphitheatre

anachronism

anteroom, antediluvian

antisemitic, antidemocratic

archangel, archetypical

autobiography, automatic

bi-annual, bilateral, bisect

by-law, byproduct

circumvent, circumnavigate

concede collaborate

cooperate, combine, correlate

 

 

 

contra-

counter-

de-

demi-

di-, dia-

dis-(di-)

 

dys-

en-

epi-

equi-

eu-

ex- (e-)

extra-

hetero

homo-

hyper-

hypo-

in- (im-,ir-)

 

in-(il-, im-,

ir-)

inter

intra-,intro-

iso-

macro-,magni-

mal-

micro-,mini-

mid-

mis-

mono-, uni-

multi-,poly-

non-

ob-(oc-,op-)

 

omni-, pan-

para-

 

per-

peri-

post-

pro-, prim-

pro-

pseudo-

quadra-

 

 

against

contrary

down, do tne opposite

half, lower

two,through, between

away from, fall to,

(not)

bad,abnormal

make

over, across,outside

equal, same

good

out, from

beyond, very

other, different

same, self homonym,

above, excessive

under, less than

in, into, inside

 

not

 

between, among

within, inside

alike, equal

large, great

bad, wrong

small

middle, halfway

bad, wrong

single, one

many

not

against,

to

all

beside, for the

purpose of

through, completely

around, surrounding

after, behind

first, before

forward, before

false, unreal

four

 

Contradict

counterproposal, countersue

depress, depend, decentralize

demigod, demitasse

diameter, diagram, dichotomy

 

dismiss, digress, diversion

dysfunction, dyslexia

enable, enlarge

epidemic, epidermis, epilogue

equivalent, equilateral

euthanasia, eugenic, euphoria

exclude, emit, evasion

extralegal, extraordinary

heterosexual, heterogeneous

homophon, homosexual

hyperactive, hypertension

hypodermic, hypo-allergenic

indict, immerse, important

institute, irradiate

insecure, illegal, immoral,

impure, irregular

intervene, interpret

intramural, introspection

isometric, isolate

macroeconomics, magnify

malfunction, malpractice

microscope, minimum

midweek, midsection

misdemeanor, mistake,

monogamy, unilateral

multipurpose, polygram

nonsense

object, obstruct, oppose

observe, occur

omniscient, panchromatic

 

parallel, paralegal, parasol

perceive, perennial, perfect

perimeter, peripheral

postpone, postdoctorate

preview, pcecedent, primary

progress, procedure

pseudonym, pseudoscientific

quadrennial

 

quasi-

re-

retro

se-

semi-, hemi-

soli-

sub-(suf-,

sug-,sup-,sus-,

super-,supra-

sur- (sue-)

syn-, sym-

tele-

trans-

tri-

ultra-

un-

 

 

as if, seemingly

again, back

backward

away from

half, partially

only, single

under, below, lower

 

above, greater, beyond

over, on

like

far, long distance

across

three

extreme, beyond

not, opposite,

reverse

 

quasi-judicial

review, regard, reject, react

retrogress, retroactive

seclude, seduce, separate

semiliterate, hemisphere

solitude, soliloquy

subordinate, suffer

support, suspicion

superimpose, superior

surpass, surface, success

synonym, sympathy

telephone, television

transport, transfer

trilateral

ultraconservative

 

undo, unlawful.

 

 

 

 

 

В: NUMERICAL PREFIXES USED IN MEASUREMENTS

 

Name

Symbol*

Meaning

Unit Multiplier

tera-

giga-

mega-

kilo-

hecto-

deka-

deci-

centi-

milli-

micro-

nano-

pico-

femto—

atto-

 

T

G

M

k

h

da

d

с

M

u

n

p

f

a

 

trillion

billion

million

thousand

hundred

ten

one-tenth

one-hundredth

one-thousandth

one-millionth

one-billionth

one-trillionth

one-quadrillionth

one-quintillionth

 

10^12

10^9

l0^6

l0^3

10^2

10^1

10^-1

10^-2

10^-3

10^-6

l0^-9

10^-12

l0^-15

10^-18

* Le Systeme International d'Unites (SI), International System of Units

 

C: QUANTITATIVE PREFIXES

 

Prefix Meaning

 

mon      one

 

un       one

 

bi two, twice,

Example of Use

 

monotone (single tone or key)

monoxide (contains one oxygen atom per molecule)

unicellular (one-celled)

unilateral (one-sided)

bicycle (two wheels)

double

di

du

ter               three

tri

 

    tetr four

 

quadr

a               without

an            lacking

heter       mixed

 

horn       similar

              throughout

hyper above, over,

            excessive

hypo less than,

             below,

            deficient

is         equal,

            same

 

micr small

 

poly       many,

              much

tel          distant, far

 

 

bifurcate (two branches, forked)

dimorphic (in two forms)

duplex (double, twofold)

tertiary (third rank or stage)

tripod (three-footed stand)

tritium (hydrogen isotope with 3 nuclear particles).

tetrachloride (four chlorine atoms)

tetrahedron (solid with four faces)

quadruped (four-footed animal)

abiotic (without living organisms)

anarchy (without government)

heterogeneous (a mixture of kinds)

heteromorph (exhibiting diversity of form)

homogenized milk.

homograft (tissue from a similar type)

hypertoxic (excessively poisonous)

hyperesthesia (unusually high sensitivity)

hypodermic (below the skin)

hypothyroid (thyroid insufficiency)

 

isosceles triangle (equal sides, equal angles)

isomorphs (same shapes or forms)

isothermal (equal temperatures)

microscope (view of small things)

microbiology (study of tiny living things)

polychrome (many-colored)

polynuclear (having many nuclei)

telescope (distant view)

television (seeing at a distance)

 

D: STEMS/ROOTS

 

Stem/Root

 

Usual Meaning

 

Examples

 

ag, act

arch

anim

anthrop

astro

aud

belli

bene, bon

biblio

bio

capit

ced, cess

cent

chron

corp

cosmo

cycl

demo

die, diet

duce, duct

erg, urg

ethno

fact, fict

fed, fid

fer

fin

fort

gamy

gen

geo

grad, gress

gram, graph

homo, human

hydro

ject

jud

locu,loqu

mani, manu

mem

metr

miss, mit

mob, mot

morph

mort

nom, nym

 

nov

ology

ortho

pathy, pass

 

do, drive

chief, leader

life

man

stars

listen, hear

war

good, well

book

life

head, chief

go, move

hundred

time

body

world

circle, wheel

people

say, tell

lead

work

race, nation

do, make

faith, trust

carry

end

strong

marriage

become, produce

earth

step, go

write

man

water

throw

Judge

speak

hand

memory

measure

send

move

form, shape

death

name, law

 

new

study of

correct, traight

felling,

agent, reaction

anarchist, archetype

animal, inanimate

anthropology, misanthrope

astrophysics, astronaut

auditorium, inaudible

rebel, belligerant

benefit, bona fides

bibliography, bibliophile

biology, autobiography

capital, capitulate

proceed, excess

century, bicentennial

synchronize, anachronism

habeas corpus, incorporate

microcosm, cosmonaut

tricycle, encyclopedia

democratic, epidemic

predict, dictator, indict

conduct, deduce

energy, ergometry, metallurgy

ethnology, ethnographic

manufacture, fiction

confident, bona fide, federal

transfer, differ, inference

infinite, final

fortify, reinforce

monogamy, bigamy, polygamous

generate, engender, genetics

geology, geography, geometry

gradual, congress, aggressive

graphology, telegraph

homicide, humanity, hominoid

hydrology, anhydrous

reject, interjection

prejudice, subjudice

elocution, circumloquacious

manipulate, manufacture

remember, memorial

metrics, perimeter

transmit, permit, dismiss

motive, automobile

amorphous, anthropomorphic

post mortem, rigor mortis

nominate, nomothetical, synonym,

patronym

novel, renovate

psychology, penology

orthodox, orthodontist

 


 

 

 

 

ped, pod

pel, pulse

pend

philo

phobe

phone

photo

pone, pose

 

port

press

psycho

rupt

scribe,script

sequ, secut

simi

solu, solv

soph

spec, spic

struct

tain, ten

temper

tend

terre

test

 

tract

vene, vent

ver

vers, vert

vid, vis

vit, viv

voc,vok

voil, voiu

xeno

zoo

 

 

 

 

 

suffering,

disease

foot

push

hang

love

fear

sound

light

place, set in

 

sympathy, apathy, passionate

biped, pedestrian

expel, repulsive, impulse

pendant, dependant

philosophy, anglophile

phobic, agoraphobia

phonics, homophone, telephone

photograph, photosynthesis

 

 

place

carry

push

mind

break

write

follow

like

loosen, free

wisdom

look

build, arrange

hold

time

stretch

earth

swear,

bear witness

pull

come

true

turn

see

life

call

roll, turn

stranger

animal

postpone, suppose, position

transport, reporter

depression, express

psychometric, parapsychology

interruption, disrupt

prescription, describe

sequence, consecutive

similar, simulation

dissolve, solution

philosopher, sophisticated

inspect, conspicuous

destruction, construct

maintain, detention, attend

temporary, contemporary

extend, tendency

territory, terra sanctra

 

testify, attest

contract, retraction

convention, intervene

verify, verisimilitude

converse, reverse, divert

visual, invisible, provide

vivid, revive

vocation, revoke, provocative

evolution, revolve, revolt

xenophobia, xenophile

zoology, epizootic

 


 

SUFFIXES

E. Suffixes used to form (and sinify) the various parts of speech

 

Suffix

 

Formation

 

Examples

 

-able,-ible,-ble

 

adj from v

 

washable

 

-ance,-ence

-ant,-ent

-ate

 

-cy

-dom

-er

-ful

-fy (-ify)

-ic, -ical

-ish

-ism

-ist

 

-ive

-ize

-less

-ly

 

-ment

-ness

-ous,-ious,-ose

-ship

-tion,-sion,-ation

n from v

n and adj from v

n and adj from n

v from n or adj

n from adj

n from n or adj

n from v

adj from v or n

v from n or adj

adj from n

adj from n or adj

n from n or adj

n or adj from n

or adj

adj from v

v from adj

adj from n

adv from adj

adj from n

n from v

n from adj

adj from n

n from n

n from v

appearance

expectant

affectionate

activate

privacy

kingdom, freedom

dancer

restful, eventful

terrify, purify

photographic; economical

foolish; youngish

heroism, socialism

violinist; socialist

 

explosive

modernize

childless

cleverly

hourly

government

loudness

dangerous

membership

examination

 

* For a complete list of English suffixes and their meanings see Longman's Dictionary of Contemporary English (an advanced learners dictionary), 1989, 1990 edition.

 

UNIT 2: REFERENCE WORDS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Reference words and abbreviations. Here are some of the more common abbreviations and reference words used in docu­mentation.

A.D. Anno Domini "in the year of the Lord". Proceeds numerals; often printed in small caps; no space between. Avoid using in references to centures.

anon.        anonymous

ante          "before" Cf. «supra»

art., arts.       article(s)

b.            bom Lat. «n.»; Ger. «geb.»

B.C. Before Christ. Follows numerals; often printed in small caps; no space between.

bibliog.        bibliography, -er, -ical

biog.          biography, -er, -ical

bk., bks. book(s). Note that this abbreviation (e.g., Bk. II of 2 bks.) saves but one character.

ca. (or c.) circa "about" Used with approximate dates, e.g.

ca.1776; «ca.» is preferable to «c.» whic can also mean "chap­ter" or "copyright."

 

cf. confer "compare" Never use»cf. «when «see» is intended. Ger. «vgl.»; Sp. «cfr.»

ch.,chs. (or chap., chaps.)        chapter(s)

col.,cols.      column(s)

соmр.       compiled, -er

d.             died Lat. «ob.»; Ger. «gest.»

diss.           dissertation

ed.,eds. (or edd.) editor(s), -ion(s), -ed by Some presses prefer «edn.» for «edition,» «ed.» for «editor.»

ed.cit. editio citata         "edition cited"

e.g. exempli gratia "for example". Rarely capitalized; no space between; preceded and followed by comma. Ger. «z.B.»

enl.           enlarged ( as in «rev. and enl. ed.»)

esp.           especially ( as in «pp. 248-263, esp p.251»)

et al. (never et als.) et alii "and others"

et seq., seqq. et sequens, sequentia "and the following" But cf. «f.,ff.»

etc. (rarely &c.) et cetera "and so forth". Avoid using in text. Ger. «usw.»

ex.,exs.,      (or exx.) example(s)

f.,ff. and the following (with a space, after a numeral) page(s) or line(s) But exact references are preferable, e.g., pp. 53-54 instead of pp.53f., pp.53-58 instead of pp. 53ff. (Some presses, e/g/, Harvard, prefer the style «53f» — omitting the period.)

fac. (or facsim.)      facsimile                                                                                                                                       

fasc.                        fascicle

fig., figs.                figure(s)

fl. floruit "flourished, reached greatest developement or in­fluence"

 

fn.      footnote Cf. '«n.»

fol.      (or fo.),f0oll. folio(s)

front,    frontispiece

hist. history, -ical, -ian

ibid. (sometimes ib.) ibidem "in the same place." i.e., the single title cited in the note immediately preceding. Not to be introduced by «in.» Ger. «ebd.»

idem (no period; sometimes id.) "the same" (person)

i.e. id est "that is" Rarely capitalized; no space between; preceded and followed by comma. Ger. «d.h.»

illus.     illustrated, -or, -ion(s)

infra (not inf.) "below" Cf. «post» and see «supra.» Since the English word has the same number of letters. The use of the Latin may be thought affectation. Many editors consider «see below (or above)» preferable, although others, particulary edi-tors of classical journals, warn that «above» and «below» can occasionally be mistaken for references to the physical position of objects in an illustration.

introd. introduction («by» understood in context)

1., 11. line(s) It is often advisable to indicate clearly in the margin that the letter 1 and not Arabic 1 or 11 is intended. Better still, spell it out or (for poetry) use «vs.»

lang., langs. language(s)

 

loc. cit. (not I.e.) loco citato "in the place (passage) cited," i.e., in the same passage referred to in a recent note. Never follow «loc. cit.» with a page number. Ger. «a.a.O.»

MS, MSS— manuscript(s) (as «the many MSS of Chaucer») But spell MS. with a period when referring to a specific manu­script, as «Bodleian MS. Tanner 43.»

n., nn. note(s) (as «p. 56, n. 3») Commonly used instead of «fn.»; occasionally spelled «p. 56n» (italicized, no period). Ger. «Am.»

N.B. nota bene "take notice, mark well"

n.d. no date, i.e., in a book's imprint Ger. «o.J.»; Fr. «s.d.» and Sp. «s.f.»

no., nos. number(s) Cf. «numb.»

n.p. no place, i.e., of publication Ger. «o.O.»; Fr. and Sp. «s.l.»

N.S. (or NS) New Series, New Style numb. numbered

op. cit. (not o.c.) opere citato "in the work cited" This is the most abused of scholarly abbreviations and many editors have expressed a wish to see it abandoned. Some journals and presses never use it. It is properly used in citing a passage on a different page (cf. «loc. cit.») of a work recently noted, but in such cases the author's name alone may suffice or his name and a short title may be clearer. Sp. «obra cit.»

O.S. (or OS) Old Series, Original Series, Old Style

p., pp. page(s) Avoid capitalizing: write «Pages» instead of «Pp.»; omit if volume numbers precedes. Ger. «S.»; Sp. «pag., pags.»

par., pars. paragraph(s)

passim "throughout the work, here and there" (as pp. 78, 113, et passim»)

 

per cent (no period)

philol. philological

philos. philosophical

pi., pis. plate(s)

post "after" Cf. «infra.»

pref. preface

pseud, pseudonym

pt.,pts. part(s) Note that this abbreviation saves but one character.

 

pub. (or publ.), pubs. published, -ication(s)

q.v. quod vide "which see"

r(superscribed, no period) recto "righthand page" But some journals require that this and «verso» never be abbreviated; a few, e.g., HLB, print B4r, instead of B4.

reg. registered

resp. respectively (as «pp. 56, 17, 89, 6 resp.»)

rev. review, -ed (by); revised (by), -ion

sc. scene Sp. «esc.»

scil. scilicet "namely, to wit"

sec. (or sect.), sees. section(s), §§

ser. series

sic "thus, so" Between square brackets when used as an editorial interpolation (see Sec. 13c); otherwise within paren­theses. Avoid using with an exclamation mark.

sig., sigs. (or sigg.) signature(s)

st. stanza

St. (or S.), SS. Saint(s) (fern. Ste.) See note 19.

sup. supra "above" See s.v. «infra» for comment.

s.v. sub verbo or voce "under the word or heading"

Note 19. Distinguish between abbreviations and contrac­tions, some journals (e.g. HLB, Isis, MLR, Speculum, YFS) also omit periods after Dr, Mr, Mrs, Mme, Mile, St, Ste. Consider, as well, assn, bk, edn, Jr, Sr, etc.

v. vide — "see"

viz. videlicet — "namely"

vol. vols. volume(s)

vs. versus — "against"

UNIT 3: VERBS FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

A): verbs showing relationships

Contrast

 

Compare

Contrast

Differ

distinguish

vary

 

Arrangement

 

arrange

balance

classify

divide

list

organize

 separate

 

Cause and effect

 

effect

cause

develop

invent

originate

produce

result

lead to

 

B: verbs of making statements

Information

 

representation

 

Demonstration

 

Announce

Communicate

Declare

Disclose

Expose

mention

refer (to)

report, state

 

clarify

contain, define

depict, describe

exhibit, explain

include

interpret

portray

represent

 

Conclude

Determine

Establish

Learn

Prove

Verify

 

 

 

 

C: verbs expressing opinion

 

 

belief

 

agreement

 

Disagreement

 

appear

assume

believe

claim

consider

imagine, presume

realize

recognize

speculate, understand

 

accept

acknowledge

agree

approve

concur

confirm

 

 

 

Argue

Challenge

Deny

Disapprove

Doubt

Question

 

 

 

persuasion

 

prediction

 

Recommendation

 

convince

force, incline

induce

influence, lead

suggest, urge

anticipate

await, expect

forecast, predict

 

Advise

ask, insist

propose, recommend

request, suggest, urge

 

UNIT 4: TERMS USED IN TEXT ANALYSIS

Nouns

 

 

analysis

antecedent

argument

claim

clarification

comparison

contrast

detail

fact

function

illustration

phrase

reason

result

statement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VERBS

 

 

analyze

argue

clarify

compare

contrast

contradict

contribute

define

demonstrate

describe

differentiate between

distinguish between

discuss

emphasize

enumerate

evaluate

examine

exemplify

explain

express

 

identify

illustrate

imply

infer

mean

mention

negate

oppose

present

prove

provide

quote

reject

review

show

state

suggest

summarize

support

trace

 

 

UNIT 5: THE UNIVERSITY WORD LIST

Language Learning and Communication

THE UNIVERSITY WORD LIST

 

 

A

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

abandon

accelerate

accurate

adequate

administer

affect

agitate

allocate

ambiguity

annual

appeal

approach

aristocrat

aspiration

asset

assure

attain

automatic

axis

 

abnormal

access

achieve

adhere

adolescent

affiliate

aid

allude

amorphous

anomaly

append

appropriate

arithmetic

assemble

assign

astronomy

attitude

avail

 

 

absorb

accompany

acid

adjacent

advocate

affluence

alcohol

ally

analogy

anonymous

appendix

approximate

arouse

assent

assimilate

atmosphere

attribute

averse

 

 

abstract

accomplish

acquire

adjective

adult

aggregate

align

alter

analyze

anthropology

appraise

arbitrary

ascribe

assert

assist

atom

auspices

aware

 

 

academic

accumulate

adapt

adjust

aesthetic

aggression

allege

alternative

angular

apparatus

appreciate

area

aspect

assess

assume

attach

authorize

awe

 

 

В

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

battery

bore

 

benefit

bread

 

biology

bubble

 

bishop

bulk

 

bomb

bureaucracy

 

С

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

calendar

carbon

cease

charter

civic

code

collide

commodity

competence

compound

conceive

condense

conflict

consent

constant

consume

context

contrary

convention

cord

credible

crucial

cycle

 

cancel

career

cell

chemical

clarify

coefficient

colloquial

commune

complement

comprehend

concentrate

conduct

conform

consequent

constitute

contact

contingent

contrast

converge

corporate

creditor

crystal

cylinder

 

capable

catalogue

challenge

circuit

classic

cogent

column

communicate

complex

comprise

concentric

confer

confront

conserve

construct

contaminate

continent

contribute

converse

correlate

crisis

culture

 

 

capillary

category

channel

circulate

client

coincide

comment

compel

comply

compulsion

concept

configuration

congress

consist

construe

contemplate

contract

controversy

cooperate

correspond

criterion

cumbersome

 

 

capture

cater

chapter

circumstance

clinic

collapse

commit

compensate

component

compute

conclude

confine

conjunction

console

consult

contend

contradict

convene

coordinate

create

critic

currency

 

 


 

D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dissolve

diverge

data

defect

deflect

 

distinct

diverse

debate

defer

degenerate

 

distort

divine

decade

deficient

degrade

denote

derive

devise

diffuse

discrete

dispute

drama

dynamic

 

distribute

doctrine

decimal

define

deliberate

dense

design

devote

digest

dispense

dissipate

drastic

 

 

district

domestic

dedicate

definite

democracy

deny

detect

diagram

dimension

disperse

 

drug

 

 

demonstrate        denominator

 

depress

detriment

diameter

discern

displace

dominate

duke

 

deprive

deviate

dictate

discourse

dispose

drain

duration

 

E

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

economy

element

emancipate

emphasize

enlighten

environment

equipment

estimate

 

edit

elevate

embody

empirical

enrich

episode

equivalent

ethics

 

efficient

elicit

embrace

enable

ensure

equate

en-

evaluate

 

elaborate

eliminate

emerge

energy

entity

equidistant

establish

evaporate

 

electron

eloquent

emotion

enhance

enumerate

equilibrium

estate

evident

 

 


eventual

exert

explicit

external

 

evoke

exhaust

exploit

extract

 

evolve

expand

exponent

 

Exclude

expel

export

 

execute

expert

expose

 

 

F

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

facilitate fate

final

fluent

formulate

fragment

frustrate

fund

 

faction

feasible

finance

fluid fort

fraternal fuel

fuse

 

factor

feature

finite

focus

fossil

fraud

fulfil

 

 

fallacy

federal

fleet

foetus

found

friction

function

 

 

fare

fertile

fluctuate

forego

fraction

frontier

fundamental

 

 

 

G

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

generate

goal

guarantee

 

genuine

grant

 

 

geography

graph

 

 

geometry

gratuity

 

 

germ

gravity

 

 

 

H

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

harbour

homogeneous

 

hero

horror

 

hemisphere

 hostile

 

heredity

huge

 

hierarchy

hypothesis

 

 

I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

identical

image

imply

incentive

incompatible

 indigenous

inflation

injure

instance

integrate

interlude

intersect

intrinsic

investigate

issue

 

identify

 impact

import

incessant

inconsistent

individual

 ingenious

innate

instinct

intelligent

intermediate

interval

intuitive

invoke

item

 

ignore

imperial

impose

incident

incorporate

induce

inherent

innovation

institute

intense

internal

interview

invade

involve

 

 

Illuminate

implement

impress

incline

index

infer

inhibit

insist

instruct

interact

interpret

intervene

inverse

irrigate

 

 

illustrate

implicit

impulse

income

indicate

inferior

initial

inspect

integer

interlock

interrelate

intimacy

invest

isolate

 

 

 

J

 

 

 

 

 

job

 

journal

 

judicial                       justify

 

 

К

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

kindred

 

knight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

L

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

label

league

leisure

litigate

luxury

 

laboratory

lecture

lens

locate

 

 

labour

legal

liable

locomotion

 

 

Launch

Legislate

Liberate

Logic

 

 

layer

legitimate

linguistic

lustre

 

 

 

M

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

magic

manifest

mathematics

metabolism

military

mobile

monarch

myth

 

magnetic

manipulate

matrix

metaphor

minimum

modify

moral

 

 

magnitude

margin

mature

method

minor

moist

morphology

 

 

Major

Material

Maximum

Microscope

Miracle

Molecule

Motive

 

 

maintain

maternal

median

migrate

mistress

momentum

muscle

 

 

 

N

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

navy

neutral

novel

 

negative

niche

nuclear

 

negotiate

norm

null

 

Nerve

Notate

Nutrient

 

network

notion

 

 

 

O

 

 

 

 

objective

occupy

orbit

oxygen

oblige

occur

orientate

obsolescent

odd

oscillate

 

Obtain

Odour

Outcome

obvious

option

overlap

 

P

 

 

 

 

parenthesis

peasant

perpetrate

pervade

physical

pole

portion

precede

premise

previous

proceed

project

prosper

psychology

 

parliament

penal

perpetual

pest

pine

policy

positive

precipitate

preposition

prime

process

propagate

protest

publish

 

participate

pendulum

persist

phase

planet

pollution

postulate

precise

prestige

prince

proclaim

propensity

province

pursue

partisan

period

perspective

phenomena

plead

pope

potential

predict

presume

principle

procure

proportion

provoke

 

passive

perpendicular

pertinent

philosophy

plot

pore

pragmatic

preliminary

prevail

priority

prohibit

proprietor

prudence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

quote

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

R

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

radical

rational

reform

reject

remove

require

resource

retain

revise

rigid

rudimentary

 

radius

reacit

refute

release

render

research

respective

retard

revive

rigour

rural

 

random

rebel

region

relevance

repress

reservoir

respond

reveal

revolt

role

 

 

Range

Rectectangle

Reign

Reluctant

Reproduce

Resident

Restore

Reverberate

Revolve

Rotate

 

 

ratio

recur

reinforce

rely

repudiate

residue

restrict

reverse

rhythm

route

 

 

 

 


 

S

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

saint

schedule

secure

series

sift

skeleton

source

speculate

stationary

stipulate

subdivide

subsidize

superficial

supreme

switch

 

sanction

scheme

seek

sex

signify

sketch

spatial

sphere

statistic

strata

subjective

subtle

superimpose

surplus

symbol

 

satellite

score

segment

shift

site

sociology

species

spontaneous

status

stress

subordinate

suffice

superior

survey

symptom

 

Saturate

Secrete

Select

Shrink

Similar

Solar

Specify

Stable

Stereotype

Structure

Subsequent

Sum

Supplement

Suspend

Synthetic

 

scalar

section

sequence

sibling

simultaneous

sophisticate

spectrum

starve

stimulate

style

subside

summary

suppres

sustain

 

 

Т

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tangent

technique

tentative

text

theory

tone

tradition

transform

treaty

tropical

 

tangible

technology

terminology

texture

thermal

topic

traffic

transit

trend

tyre

 

tape

telescope

territory

theft

tiny

torture

trait

transmit

triangle

 

 

Task

Temperary

Terror

Theism

Tissue

Trace

Transact

Transparent

Trivial

 

 

team

tense

testify

theorem

tolerate

tractor

transfer

transport

troop

 

 

 

 

 

 

U

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ultimate

uniform

utter

 

undergo

upsurge

 

 

underlie

urban

 

 

Undertake

Usage

 

 

unduly

utilize

 

 

V

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

vague

velocity

vibrate

vital

 

valid

verbal

violate

vocabulary

 

vary

verify

virtual

volt

 

Vast

Version

Visible

Volume

 

vein

vertical

visual

voluntary

 

W

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

withdraw

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

x-ray

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


PART II

AN APPROACH TO READING

 

SECTION I

INTRODUCTION TO AN APPROACH TO READING

 

 

UNIT 1. VARIETIES OF MEANING

1. CONCEPTUAL MEANING

This is the kind of meaning that may be embodied in a single word, or a part of a word, or in a complete text made up of many words organized in the form of a discourse. Single words can embody simple concepts, or notions (e.g., «water») as well as the more complex variety (e.g., «intelligence»). Some­times, however, an entire book may be written just to explain a single complex concept such as intelligence. Units even smaller than a word can also embody a simple concept (e.g., the En­glish suffix -s, which expresses the concept of plurality).

2. PROPOSITIONAL MEANING

This is the kind of meaning that can be embodied in a clause or sentence on its own (i.e., without any other context). A word on its own has a propositional meaning, or truth value. For example, the word «intelligence» is not in itself either true or false. But if we embody it in a sentence such as -

Intelligence can be measured

we can support or deny the resulting proposition: we can assert that it is either true or false and try to prove this.

Some sentences, however, have little or no meaning unless embodied in a broader context. For example,

Nevertheless, he did it again.

 

We have little idea of what the significance of «Nevertheless» might be without the preceding context. Nor do we know who «he» is, or what he «did again.» Such sentences are dependent upon the broader context for their meaning.

3. CONTEXTUAL MEANING

This is the meaning a sentence takes on when it is embod­ied within a broader context. For example, the proposition

Intelligence cannot be measured by a test

is a generalization which tells us nothing about the attitude of the person who wrote it or why he bothered to write it. But within a broader context such as -

We must not use the results of IQ tests to determine whether or not a child should be allowed to continue his studies beyond high school. Intelligence cannot be measured by a test.

The generalization takes on the special function of explaining or justifying the preceding sentence.

4. PRAGMATIC MEANING

This is the meaning a sentence takes on when it is part of an interaction between a writer and a reader. It reflects the writer's feelings and attitudes as well as his intention that the reader should understand what these are. It also includes an intended effect - the effect that the writer intends his sentence to have upon the reader.

Consider, for example, the following:

Intelligence cannot be measured by a test. And yet we constantly use the results of I.Q. tests to deter­mine whether or not a child should be allowed to continue his studies beyond a certain level. How long are we going to go on perpetrating this iniquitous practice?

The last sentence, although phrased as a question, actually serves to emphasize the writer's outrage and to make clear his intention to get his reader to cooperate with him in doing something about the «iniquitous practice.»

Exercise:

For each of the following sentences provide a set of differ­ent contexts with different pragmatic meanings.

EXAMPLE: So of course you believed him.

a. Everyone knew he was the world's biggest liar. So of course you believed him. You obviously enjoy be­ing made a fool of!

b. After all, he never lied before. So of course you believed him. I would have done the same under those circumstances.

1.I never saw anything like it.        4. I could do with some fresh air.

2.I wonder how he managed.         5. Don't let me rush you.

3. Nothing ever came of it.             6. Don't worry about me.

 

UNIT 2. WHAT THE WRITER MEANS

I. WHAT THE WRITER MEANS

(AND WHAT HE ASSUMES THE READER ALREADY KNOWS)

Writers often assume some degree of prior knowledge of their subject on the part of their readers. Not having to spell out every single detail (i.e., assuming that the reader already knows certain details) makes it possible for the writer to get his message across more quickly and effectively.

Consider the following:

Text A:

The policeman held up his hand and stopped the car.

We understand what the writer of this sentence means be­cause we know more than what the words mean.

* What does the writer assume that we already know about traffic signals and how cars stop and go (before we even begin to read his sentence)?

Text B:

Mary heard the ice-cream man coming down the street. She remembered her birthday money and rushed into the house.

* How do you suppose Mary was able to hear the ice-cream man coming? (What detail didn't the writer bother giving us because he assumed we already knew?)

* What connection does the writer assume we will easily make between what Mary hears and what she does? (Is there anything in the sentences that helps us make the connection? To what extent do we have to depend upon what we already know about the situation from our own experience?)

II. IMPLICATION (WHAT THE WRITER ASSUMES HIS READER WILL INFER)

Writers often reveal what they have to tell us indirectly. The information is implied, rather than directly (explicitly) stated, so that we have to do some «work» before we can understand the message. The «work» that we have to do is called «infer­ring»: we «infer» the meaning that the writer «implies», or reveals indirectly (implicitly). Another way of saying this is: We make inferences (by inferring) about the writer's implica­tions (whatever he implies).

Text C:

Business had been slow since the stock market crash. No­body seemed to want anything really elegant anymore. Sud­denly the door opened and a well-dressed man entered the showroom. With a sigh of relief, John put on his friendliest smile and walked confidently towards him.

* What is John's occupation and how do we know this?

 

* John assumes that the well-dressed man has a particular purpose in entering the showroom. What does he think the man has in mind, and how do we know this?

* What has John probably inferred from the way the man is dressed that explains why he sighed with relief and walked confidently toward him?

* What can we infer about the sort of things that were on display in the showroom? On what basis can we make this inference?

Text D:

(1) Jill came bouncing down the stairs.

(1') Harry rushed off to get the doctor.

Most readers would interpret this in terms of Jill falling down the stairs and injuring herself, and as a result of this Harry calling a doctor. Notice how different the interpretation is when (1) is followed by a slightly different sentence:

(1)   Jill came bouncing down the stairs.

(1") Harry rushed over to kiss her.

* Now what would most readers infer about the meaning of the first sentence?

III. THE ROLE OF CONTEXT IN CLARIFYING AMBIGUITIES

Often what the writer means by a given statement depends to some extent upon the context within which the statement (or written sentence) appears. Out of context, certain sentences become highly ambiguous (open to various interpretations). Consider the following:

 

Visiting professors can be boring.

The lamb was too hot to eat.

Out of cotext, these sentences are ambiguous and the mes­sage is unclear.

* Place each of the above sentences in different clarifying contexts (by adding other sentences before or after them).

example: I don't think you'll enjoy the lecture. Visiting professors can be boring.

 

SECTION II

DEALING WITH SENTENCE

 

UNIT 1. EXERCISES ON SENTENCE PATTERNS*

* This unit is based on Let's Write English by George E. Wishon and Julia M. Burks.

 

(Before doing these exercises, read carefully through Unit 2 of Appendix [Section V of Part II] for a full presentation of the nine simple sentence patterns).

I. SIMPLE SENTENCES

Listed below are the simple sentence patterns in review:

Pattern 1 (Noun + Verb): The man teaches.

Pattern 2 (Noun + Verb + Adverb or Prepositional Phrase): My brother works in a factory.

Pattern 3 (Noun + Verb + Noun): That Professor teaches English.

Pattern 4 (Noun + Verb + Noun + Noun): The man teaches the boys English.

Pattern 5 (Noun + Verb + Noun + Adjective or Noun): That man called the teacher a genius.

Pattern 6 (Noun + LV (linking verb) + Noun): The man is a teacher.

Pattern 7 (Noun + LV + Adjective, Adverb or Preposi­tional Phrase): That man is intelligent.

Pattern 8 (There + LV + Noun + Adverb or Prepositional Phrase): There is a teacher in the classroom.

Pattern 9 (It + LV + Adjective, Adverb, Noun, or Preposi­tional Phrase): It is morning.

 

Exercise:

Analyze each of the following sentences. Identify each one by its sentence pattern number. List the sentence elements that make up the pattern. Underline and identify the subjects, predicates and complements you find in the sentences. Look out for compound subjects and compound predicates.

Example: Perhaps you wear a watch.

                      (Pattern 3. Noun + Verb + Noun)

(1) There was always a great need to tell the time.

(2) It was important.

(3) Early man used the sun and marked shadows of trees.

(4) Perhaps the shadow was short. Noon was near.

(5) Such clocks were satisfactory for a number of years.

(6) Then some clever person gave us the sundial.

(7) A sundial works fine on sunny days. But some days are dark and cloudy.

(8) Another inventor developed the water clock.

(9) In it, water ran from one vessel to another.

(10) The amount of water indicated the time.

(11) A modern hourglass is similar to the old water clock.

(12) Sand instead of water flows through an hourglass. But the principle is the same.

(13) Alfred the Great of England invented another method.

(14) Alfred's method was a candle with markings on it.

(15) The candle burned. Its markings indicated the time.

(16) In the fourteenth century, a German invented a clock.

(17) It contained many of the parts of a modern clock.

(18) Historians should consider that Germen were one of the greatest contributors to our civilization.

(19) He made possible our watches of today.

(20) We owe him recognition.

II. EXPANDED SIMPLE SENTENCES

Below is a review of the Expanded Simple Sentence Pat­terns:*

* See Unit 2 of Appendix [Section V of Part II] for a full presentation of the expanded simple sentence patterns.

 

Pattern l (Noun + Verb )

         (Subject + Verb)

Example: The man teaches.

The tall man over there usually teaches every day at my school.

Pattern 2 (Noun + Verb + Adverb/Prepositional Phrase)

                    (Subj. + Verb + Complement)

Example: My brother works in a factory

My hopelessly lazy brother grudgingly works in a modern, well-designed, and well-managed shoe factory.

Pattern 3 (Noun + Verb + Noun)

(Subj. + Verb + DO [Direct Object])

Example: That professor teaches English.

That famous British professor brilliantly taught Shakespearean English last term.

Pattern 4 (Noun + Verb + Noun + Noun )

(Subj. + Verb + 10 (indirect object) + DO)

Example: That man teaches the boys English.

Year after year, a quiet, patient American man dutifully teaches my boys very useful English.

     Pattern 5 (Noun + Verb + Noun/Adjective)

(Subj. + Verb + Object + Object Complement)

Example: That man called the teacher a genius.

An unbelievably ignorant man just called our teacher a true genius!

Pattern 6 (Noun + LV (linking verb) + Noun)

(Subject + LV + Complement)

Example: The man is a teacher.

The talkative man in the corridor is a wellknown geography teacher.

 

Pattern 7 (Noun + LV + Adjective/Adverb/Prepositional Phrase)

               (Subj. + LV + Complement)

Example: That man is intelligent.

All bald-headed men are always very intelligent.

Pattern 8 (There + LV + Noun + Adverb/Prepositional Phrase)

           (There + LV + Subject + Complement)

Example: There is a teacher in the classroom.

There is an angry teacher in the noisy classroom.

Pattern 9 (It + LV + Complement)

(It + LV + Adjective/Adverb/Prepositional Phrase)

Example: It is morning.

It is a cold, rainy morning in March.

Exercise:

Text A:

I walk to work. I take my lunch and a thermos of coffee. I walk through the streets enjoying the air and the sights and sounds. The city is waking up. A boy is setting up his shoe-shine stand. A man is delivering lettuce to a grocery store. I see a friend. He is waiting for a taxi. I stop for a chat. Then I go on. I walk to work. I do not take taxis. Walking makes me happy. It keeps me healthy.

Below is an expanded version of the preceding paragraph. Tense, number, and one verb have been changed, and modifi­ers have been added. The subject has also been changed.

Text A’:

John walked to work. He took a thermos of hot coffee and a delicious lunch in a paper bag. He walked slowly, enjoying the cool, early-morning air and the sights and sounds of the streets. The big, noisy, turbulent city was rapidly waking up. An energetic little boy was setting up his battered shoe-shine stand in front of a hotel entrance. A delivery man dressed in a white uniform was busily slapping down cartons of lettuce on the sidewalk in front of a gro­cery store. John saw a friend waiting for a taxi. He stopped briefly for a short chat. John usually walked to work. He almost never took taxis. Walking made him happy. It also kept him healthy.

 

Text B:

It is summer. The days are long and hot. Children are out of school. They do not go to scout meetings or to music les­sons. They swim and read. They telephone their friends. They play tennis. Whole families go on vacation. There is fun in winter also. But there is more work. Teachers give their stu­dents long assignments. Parents keep busy. There is little time for play. Everyone takes a rest in summer. Summer gives the family change and relaxation. It makes everyone happy.

Rewrite Text B. Change the verb tenses for variety. Change the subject, if possible. Expand each subject and predicate by the use of as many modifiers as possible without distorting natural word order. Do not combine sentences.

III. COMPOUND SENTENCES*

Exercises:

A.

Underline the coordinate conjunctions* in the following paragraph. Identify the sentences or the sentence parts that are joined by the conjunctions.

* See Unit 2 of Appendix [Section V of Part II] for a full presentation of compound sentences.

 

John is sixteen years old, and he is a junior in high school. He is interested in physics and in baseball. He is a good stu­dent, but he finds time to go to the teen club on Friday nights and to keep up with the latest popular songs. He has never seen many of the things his parents grew up with. He has no idea how butter is made nor what veal is. Vegetables and fruits are brought home from the supermarket in bags and packages; he wouldn't know the difference between a potato plant and a plum tree. His parents are always a little shocked to realize these facts. They know he has not lived through a Great De­pression or a World War, but they usually expect him to un­derstand and adopt their attitudes and values. They are some­times surprised by his failure to do so, and they have to try very hard to see the world through his eyes.

 

В.

Underline the correlative conjunctions* (either or; nei­ther nor; not only, but also; both, and) in the following paragraph. Identify the sentences or the sentence parts that are joined by the conjuctions.

* See Unit 4 of Appendix [Section V of Pan II] «The Conjunctions and Connectors of English».

 

Thirty years ago people knew about neither spaceships nor astronauts. They were fascinated with a machine called the automobile, and they were nervous about flying in airplanes. Gradually both automobiles and airplanes became common­place. The coming of jets caused a small sensation, but soon people were used to them, too. Today, we are accustomed, not only to satellites being launched from the earth and put into orbit, but also to having men spend several days in space. We now expect man to go to the moon. Parents of the past wooried about airplanes. Parents of today may either have to accept space travel for their children or make themselves and their children unhappy.

C.

Underline the sentence connectors* in the following para­graph. Identify the sentences that are joined by the connec­tors.

Tonight we saw a light moving quickly across the sky. It looked like a star; however it was moving much too fast for a star. It left no trail of fire behind it; therefore, it could not be a comet or a meteor. It was too fat and too high to be an airplane; besides, there was only one speck of light, and it was steady and unblinking. We thought it might be an orbiting satellite, yet there was no space flight in the news. Maybe the morning papers would clear up the mystery; meanwhile, the light disappeared from sight in the distance. On the opposite side of the sky, we discovered a beautiful, brilliantly orange moon, partly hidden by the trees. It looked familiar and reas­suring; the smile on its face, however, was as inscrutable as ever.

 

D.

Rewrite the following paragraph. Provide the missing words and combine each set into one sentence, watching the sense of the story to produce a logical paragraph. You will have to change the word order to question word-order (i.e., by putting the verb, or the helping verb, before the subject) in some sentences (nos. 4, and 6).

(1) (but) A beekeeper brought twenty ferocious African queen bees to South America. He made a terrible mistake.

(2) (and) He thought they would mix with his tame bees. A better breed would be produced.

(3) (either ... or) They killed the tame bees. The result of their interbreeding produced killer bees.

(4) (neither ... nor) The bees could (not) be handled safely. Their honey could (not) be harvested.

(5) (for) They ran wild and increased in number. They were dangerous to control.

(6) (not only ... but also) These bees invaded the cities. They stung anything they could find when attempts were made to kill them.

(7) (both... and, so, or) Animals were killed by them. People were killed by them. They all had to be destroyed somehow. The cities would not safe.

(8) (for, and, but) The price of honey rose 400%. It was difficult to extract. Entomologists were faced with a serious problem. They eventually found means of solving it.

 

IV. COMPLEX SENTENCES*

* See Unit 2 of Appendix [Section V of Part II] for a full presentation of complex sentences.

 

Exercises:

1. Do the following exercises for practice in identifying noun clauses.

A.Underline the noun clauses in the following sentences.

Tell the function of each noun clause, whether it is used as subject, direct object, indirect object, object  of preposi­tion, appositive, or subject complement.

Examples:

Why a good vocabulary is important is obvious. (Sub­ject) The reason is that words carry thought. (Subject complement.)

One should learn how words are built. (Direct Object)

Skills give whoever masters them help. (Indirect Object)

A search for whatever clues are given may unlock a defi­nition. (Object of a preposition)

The fact that strange words slow our reading is evident. (Appositive)

 

 

(1) Books have been written about how one can become a better reader.

(2) Those businessmen are interested in facts.

(3) Companies are requiring that their chief officers take special courses.

(4) They give whoever needs help free courses.

(5) The reason is that good readers help a company.

(6) The fact that skills can be learned rapidly encourages us.

B. Combine the sentences in each group below to form one sentence containing a noun clause. Write the resulting ten sentences as a paragraph.

(1) Poetry is difficult for some readers. It is a fact.

(2) They forget this. Poetry is natural for children.

(3) Most poetry must be read slowly. This is true.

(4) One reason is this. A few words suggest big ideas.

(5) Words are placed in unusual order. That is another reason.

(6) This fact is obvious. Poets use words figuratively.

(7) Who has an imagination? Poets give word pictures. (who­ever)

(8) One must think about this. What do the words suggest?

(9) Does poetry give rewards? Who reads it? (whoever)

(10) We know this. It contains many of man's noblest thoughts.

2. Combine the pairs of sentences below, using adjective clauses.

(1) Johnny had the right idea. You have just heard about him.

(2) An African elephant will measure over eleven feet high. It is full grown.

(3) P.T. Barnum was a great shownam. His circus elephant became world famous.

(4) The elephant was over ten feet high. Barnum owned it.

(5) The weight was twelve thousand pounds. It was normal.

(6) An elephant's trunk weighs three hundred pounds. It is about six feet long.

(7) We have to admire little Johnny. He answered so wisely.

(8) The elephants could not be lost. He had seen them.

3. Practice identifying adverbial clauses. Underline the ad­verbial clauses in these sentences. Tell which word in the sen­tence is modified by the clause.

(1) Many pioneers struggled as many other heroes have struggled.

(2) Danger lurked wherever they looked.

(3) If Indians attacked, everyone fought.

(4) When sickness came, families cooperated.

(5) Although hardships increased, people continued.

(6) Pioneers struggled because dreams survived.

(7) As time passed, life improved.

4. Rewrite the following pairs of sentences to make one complex sentence. Use adverb clauses.

 

Example: John will attend a technical college.

 

 

 

He wants to be an engineer. John will at­tend a technical college so that he can be an engineer.

 

(1) (although)

 

John is only sixteen.

He has already entered a university.

 

(2) (because)

 

He studied hard in high school.

He wanted to be accepted by a good uni­versity.

 

(3) (as if)

 

He always conducted himself properly.

He was older than his years.

 

(4) (since)

 

His family lived a long way from an university.

He had to move to a strange city.

 

(5) (when)

 

He reached the university.

Classes had not yet started.

 

(6) (while)

 

He was searching for a place to live.

He met a foreign student.

 

(7) (after)

 

The two boys became acquainted.

They decided to share a room.

 

(8) (unless)

 

They planned their expenditures carefully.

They would not have enough money.

 

(9) (before)

 

They looked for a room.

The two friends consulted the Dean.

 

5. Complete each of the following sentences with a noun by one of the subordinators given.

 

Who what

Whose that

what for

where

why s kind

how

how many

when

 

how old

   how far whether whom

how much how soon

 

 


(1) John wondered ________.

(2) Mary told me _______.

(3) Jane said _______.

(4) The strangers inquired about _______.

(5) The teacher didn't explain _______.

(6) _____ is certain.

(7) Please ask Mr. Jones _______.

(8) We must remember _______.

(9) We must nevet forget _______.

(10) We argued about _______.

(11) I cannot agree with ______.

(12) Ted wants to do ______.

(13) Carl's mother wants to know _______.

(14) ______ should not be tolerated.

(15) Please give James Lee _______.

(16) The fact is ______.

(17) We asked the teacher _______.

(18) Believing _______, I will vote for him.

(19) Martha doesn't believe _____.

(20) It has been proved _______.

(21) Knowing ______, Mrs. Kelly will arrive early.

(22) The company will give ______ a prize.

(23) _______ was very amusing.

(24) ______ is a secret.

(25) Considering ____, I think I would like to know her.

6. Combine the following pairs of sentences. You may use coordinating conjunctions to make them compound, or rela­tive pronouns or subordinating conjunctions to make them complex. Rewrite the sentences to form a paragraph.

(1) Giraffes are curious creatures. Everyone finds them fas­cinating.

(2) Their coloring is interesting. Their long necks amaze us.

(3) They enjoy life. They have interesting experiences.

(4) The giraffe's neck is a watchtower. The animal's fine vision and sense of smell constitute additional protection.

(5) Curiosity and poor judgment lead the giraffe into dan­gerous situations. Often they result in its death.

(6) These animals stand beside a tree. They eat the top leaves.

(7) Their eating manners are excellent. They drink in an awkward fashion.

(8) Their long legs and neck present a problem. The ani­mals have learned a good method.

(9) They stretch their legs far apart. They lower their heads.

(10) The giraffe is fortunate. This strange animal can go without water for several days.

(11) It must feel safe at a water hole. Sometimes the giraffe will remain thirsty.

(12) With its head down to drink, it cannot see. This may be very dangerous.

 

UNIT 2. COMPLEX. SIMPLE. COMPLEX *

* See Unit 2 of Appendix [Section V of Part II] for a full presentation of Simple and Complex Sentence Patterns.

 

Exercise:

Rewrite each of the complex sentences in Text A below as a series of simple sentences, each making a single point.

Combine the important ideas in your set of simple sen­tences into a single complex sentence of no more than 30 words.

Text A:

[1] Ever since the telly(l) came to claim pride of place in every parlour, prophets of doom have described the corruption of the soul and emasculation(2) of the mind bound to result from exposure to the sights and sounds churned out by the networks.

[2] Youth has been named as the prime victim of the persuaders, although I for one, far from fearing for the mental welfare of the modern young, envy them their painless access to vivid information about the world in which they are growing up.

[3] I suspect that television, by preparing young minds for the vagaries(3) of mankind, has made the business of cutting apron strings and launching into independence far less trau­matic than it was when I was a girl.

(1) telly -television (British English: informal).

(2) emasculation — the process of weakening something: depriving it of its strength and effectiveness.

(3) vagaries — wild or unexpected ideas or actions.

 

UNIT 3. REGISTER

By «register» we mean the words, style and grammar used by writers (and speakers) in a particular condition. Official docu­ments, for example, are written in a formal register (i.e., an elevated style). So are academic articles. A personal note to a friend is usually written in an informal register (i.e., a colloquial style, suitable for ordinary, or familiar communication: e.g., «You're nuts» is the colloquial equivalent of «You are insane»).

Members of certain professional groups tend to communi­cate with each other in a jargon (i.e., a language including words and expressions known mainly or exclusively to fellow members of their profession). Other groups of people differen­tiate between themselves and others by creating their own slang or argot (a style of expressing themselves and a vocabulary peculiar to members of a particular group: e.g., the slang of teenagers, or the argot of criminals).

Writers of popular articles often use a mixed register -i.e., they use both formal and informal language in order to make their writing more lively and/or amusing.

3.1 Reread Text A in Unit 2 above. Consider especially the underlined words and phrases.

A.    How would you describe the register of Text A?

B.     What type of article do you think this excerpt (Text A) was taken from? (Could it be part of: a literary essay? a chapter of a textbook? a popular essay written by a newspa­per columnist?

        C. Read Carr's «What is a Historical Fact?» in Part IV.

In what register was that essay written? Where was it pub­lished? Is Carr a «popular» writer? Why do you imagine he might have chosen to write in the style that he did?

 

UNIT 4. USING RELATIVE PRONOUNS TO FORM COMPLEX SENTENCE *

* See Unit 2 of Appendix (Section V of Part II].

 

4.1 Combine the following sets of simple sentences to form complex sentences, substituting the relative pronouns «who», «which», «that», or «whose» for the repeated nouns and noun phrases.

1. a. There are certain historians.

b. The historians have been arguing against Carr's ideas.

c. The ideas have not been accepted by many of his colleagues.

2. a. There are certain historians.

b. The historians have been arguing against Carr.

c. Carr's ideas have not been accepted by many of his colleagues.

3. a. In the past few years we have seen the publishers of a book/ acquitted by the high court.

b. The book was considered unpublishable 30 years ago on moral grounds.

c. The fact (of the publisher's having been acquitted) can only be attributed to a sharp change in public opinion.

UNIT 5. STRUCTURES WITH OMISSION *

* Based on Leech and Svartvik, A Communicative Grammar of English, 1975

 

A good writer will make his sentences more concise (i.e. shorter and clearer) by using various structures of omission. These include:

1. Coordination

a. Not only classical, but popular art is being seriously studied these days. [Classical art is being seriously studied these days; popular art is, (too).]

b. Either West Germany or Holland will win the World Cup. [West Germany will win the World Cup or (else) Holland will do so.]

c. John washes and irons his own shirts. [John washes his own shirts; he irons them (too).]

d. Peter cut himself a slice of bread and cheese. [Peter cut himself a slice of bread; he (also) cut himself some cheese.]

e. He ate the fruit, though not the nuts. [He ate the fruit; though he did not eat the nuts.]

2. Non-finite clauses

(to-infinitive clause: -ing clause; -ed clause)

a. to-infinitive clause

I hope to be present

[I hope that I shall be present].

b. -ing clause

Living in the country, we had few social visits.

[Since we lived in the country, we had few social visits.]

c. -ed clause

The man injured by the bullet was taken to the hospital. [The man who was injured by the bullet was taken to the hospital.]

3. Non-finite clauses introduced by a subordinator

a. -ing clause

He wrote his novel while working as a research assistant.

[.... while he was working ...]

 

b. -ed clause

Though defeated, he remained a popular leader.

[Though he had been defeated, ....]

4. Verbless clauses (having no verb, and usually no subject)                                                                                                      a. Whether right or wrong, he usually wins the argument.

   [Whether he is right or wrong, ....]

b. A man of few words, George says what he has to say in a few minutes.

[Being a man of few words, ....]

3.1 Make the following sentences more concise by using one of the above structures of omission. The words which can be omitted have been underlined).

1. Tonight we are flying to Athens and next week we are flying to London.

2. He was determined that he would be the one that they chose.

3. Because she wanted to look well, she decided to diet.

4. He was sickened by the thought of so much waste and he decided that he would do something about it.

5. I came into the room and I found him waiting for me.

UNIT 6. THE USES OF PUNCTUATION *

* see Unit 3 of Appendix [Section V of Part II].

 

Check the sentence that answers the question:

1. How do we know that Peter has unusual powers of per­suasion?

a. Peter left him, convinced he was a fool.

b. Peter left him convinced he was a fool.

 

2. In which case will there be three people in the car?

a. Julia, Barbara and I will drive to Oxford tomorrow.                                               

b. Julia Barbara and I will drive to Oxford tomorrow.

 

3. Which speaker has a brother named John?

a. Give this letter to my brother John and wait for an an­swer.

b. Give this letter to my brother, John, and wait for an answer.

4. Which sentence describes a monster?                                                                                                                                    a. Jim saw the man-eating fish.                                                                                                                               b. Jim saw the man eating fish.

5. Which is more flattering to Mrs. Sandford?                                                                                                                         a. Mrs. Sandford is a pretty generous woman.                                                                                                    b. Mrs. Sandford is a pretty, generous woman.

6. Which tells us that it pays to keep cool?

a. He remained calm, cool and collected.

b. He remained calm and cool — and collected.

7. Which tells us that the plan worked out in some unex­pected way?

a. The plan didn't work out, as we had anticipated.                                                                                                                             b. The plan didn't work out as we had anticipated.

8. Which suggests that I have more than one sister?                                                                                                         a. I rang up my sister who lives in Boston.                                                                                                                      b. I rang up my sister, who lives in Boston.

9. Which would explain my terrible singing style?                                                                                                    a. I sang the song as he told me to.                                                                                                                                  b. I sang the song, as he told me to.

10. Which suggests that we had some other reason for doing what we did?

a. We didn't do it because we wanted to see if he would cry.                                                                                                 b. We didn't do it, because we wanted to see if he would cry.

 

UNIT 7. DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN SIMILAR SENTENCES

Exercise: Paraphrase each of the following sentences (i.e., state the sense of each sentence using different words).

1. He was used to getting up early.                                                                                                                He used to get up early.

2. After an exhausting search they found the missing children.                                                                                         After an exhaustive search they found the missing children.

3. I have made few friends, but I enjoy living here.                                                                                                    I have made a few friends, so I enjoy living here.

4. I have heard nothing of him for a very long time.                                                                                                                                I have heard nothing from him for a very long time.

5. I regret to say that you'll be held responsible.                                                                                                   I regret saying that you'll be held responsible.

6. Did you read his last great novel?                                                                                                 Did you read his great last novel?

7. She didn't marry just because he was rich.                                                                                                  She didn't marry just because he was rich.

<a> just — precisely, or exactly

<b> just — only, or merely

8. She saved him a seat.                                                                                                              She saved him a phone call.

<a> saved — to reserve, set apart.

<b> saved — to prevent the necessity of something.

9. Did you remember to look for the book?                                                                                                                   Do you remember looking for the book?

 

10. John stopped to explain about his illness.

John stopped explaining about his illness.

11. The driver forgot to put gas in the car.                                                                                                   The driver forgot putting gas in the car.

12. I regret to say that you'll be held responsible.                                                                                                I regret saying that you'll be held responsible.

13. Did you know that John has agreed?                                                                                                    Do you know whether John has agreed?

14. Has he told you that they passed the exam?                                                                                                                 Has he told you whether they passed the exam?

15. I don't doubt that he will cooperate.                                                                                                              I doubt whether he will cooperate.

16.The rebels' defeat of the army was an exciting event.                                                                                                 The rebels' defeat by the army was an exciting event.

17. The young man's discovery was never even mentioned.                                                                                         The discovery of the young man was never even mentioned.

18.The Americans who are patriotic tend to be conservative.                                                                                         The Americans, who are patriotic, tend to be conservative.

 

UNIT 8. INDIRECTION: NEGATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

8.1. Answer the questions below each sentence:

1. Not infrequently we go to Prague in the autumn.                                                                                               Do we often go there in the autumn?

2. It is not unlikely that we will go there again this

October. Is there a good chance that we'll be going there in October?

 

3. It is not unthinkable that there should be a 3rd World War.                                                                                                Is this a completely ridiculous idea?

4. He thinks nothing of checking his answers again and again.                                                                                     Does he mind checking his answers?

5. Nor is it only his own answers that he checks.                                                                                                   What else does he do?

6. It is not impossible that the experiment will fail.                                                                                                    The speaker is ______ ing the person he is addressing that the experiments _______ fail.

                                                                                                                      (modal verb)

7. Geology is by no means without practical importance. The speaker is aware that some people, including the person he is addressing, may have the idea that geology ______________________________________ .

8. Her behavior makes her all but indistinguishable from a native Italian.                                                               How does she behave?

9. It is not unknown for him to be less than punctual.                                                                                                      Is he ever late?

8.2 Read the following sentences and answer the questions.

1. There could never be any circumstance which could justifi anybody's saying anything of the kind. Nevertheless he could hardly* keep himself from saying it.

* hardly = [1] almost not; [2] only with difficulty

 

a. Can you guess what kind of remark it probably was?

b. Did he actually make the remark?

c. Was he justified in what he did?

2. Even if she had never done anything like it before in her life, I would not have been surprised had she done it now, so much had she matured in the course of that year.

 

    a. Is «it» a good or a bad thing (and how do you know)?

b. Had she ever done anything like it before?

c. Why did the speaker expect her to do it now?

d. Did she do it now?

e. The speaker implies that, if she had done something like it before, then ____________________ .

 

f. What time does «now» refer to?

3. Nothing could have looked simpler, or been harder to accomplish.

a. Substitute an equivalent word for «looked».

b. The writer is contrasting the way it ____ (one word) with ___________.

c. Indirectly, we learn the fact that something hard to do has been ___________ (one word).

d. Why does the speaker set up the contrast? (Why doesn't he just state the fact?)

4. It isn't because I disagree with your views that I can't accept what you say, but because I don't see that you've man­aged to substantiate them properly.

a. The speaker is justifying his own decision. What decision has he made?

b. Does he disagree with the views of the person he is addressing?         

с. Has that person tried to substantiate his views?

d. Has he succeeded?

5. Hardly had she begun doing something about it when they warned her not to. Did she mind? Never had it been easier to do nothing!

a. Did she begin?

b. «Not to» — what?

c. Did she mind — what?

d. What did she find it easy to do?

8.3 Consider the following:

1. What risk is the writer taking when he uses indirection, instead of just saying what he means as directly and clearly as possible?

2. Under what circumstances might a writer (or speaker) want to make it harder for his reader (or listener) to quickly grasp exactly what he is saying?

 

UNIT 9. IMPLICATION

9.1 By his choice of words, his choice of language, a writer often implies more than is actually printed on the page. What is the meaning implied by each of the following quotations?

1. Women's intuition is the result of millions of years of not thinking. (Rupert Hughes).

2. Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily that is not difficult. (Char­lotte Whitton, Mayor of Ottawa).

 

3. I am glad that I am not a man as I should then be obliged to marry a woman. (Madame de Staël).

4. Women are most fascinating between the ages of 35 and 40, after they have won a few races and know how to pace themselves. Since few women ever pass 40, maximum fascina­tion can continue indefinitely. (Christian Dior).

5. There must be some women who are not liars. (W. Somerset Maugham)

6. Women are like gods. They have one face for their wor­shippers and one for their rivals. (source unknown)

 

UNIT 10. TYPES OF AMBIGUITY

1. Joe: «My hobby is sailing ships».

   John: «Personally, I prefer flying kites». Jack: «How about flying saucers?»

a. Can any of these speakers be sure that he knows what the others are talking about?

b. What's the problem?

2. He dreamed of travelling constantly.

a. How often did he have this dream?                                                                                                    b. How often did he want to travel?

3. The lamb was too hot to eat.

What are the three possible meanings of this statement?

a. The weather was _____, so the lamb wouldn't eat.                                                                                                    b. The (cooked) lamb wasn't edible because the cook used too much _______.

    d. The (cooked) lamb had to be ______ before it could be eaten.

4. SHIP SAILS TODAY

a. Is this an order that someone has issued?                                                                                                    b. Is someone reporting an event?

5. The patriotic Americans have great respect for their country's constitution.

a. Do all Americans respect their constitution (because they are all patriotic)?

b. Do only some (the patriotic ones) respect it?

6. The hungry workers went on strike.

a. Did all the workers participate in the strike (because they were hungry)?

b. Were some of the workers well-fed (and therefore not among the strikers)?

7. Criminal lawyers seldom die in bed.

a. Is the profession of defending people accused of crimes a dangerous one?

b. Is it particularly dangerous for a lawyer to commit a crime?

 

UNIT 11. WHAT THE WRITER MEANS BUT FOR SOME REASONS PREFERS NOT TO SAY DIRECTLY

Match each phrase in Column I with the phrase in Column II that expresses what the writer probably meant (but preferred not to say ditectly):

 

Column I

 

Column II

 

1. It has been said that...

 

a. I can't be bothered to prove this but I expect you to believe it

 

2. ... a fact of unquestion-significance

 

b. It suits my theory to able interpret these facts as ...

 

3. It is well known that ...

 

c. I haven't been able to find information on ...

 

4. By now it is clear that..

 

d. There are some idiots who belive that...

 

5. There are those who claim that...

 

e. ... something that strikes me as important, though I haven't decided why

 

6. Common sense will tell you that...

 

f. I believe that...

 

7. These facts can clearly be interpreted as expressions of...

 

g. I hope I've managed to convince you that...

 

8. Little is known about...

 

h. (I read this somewhere, but I can't remember where).

 

 

SECTION III

DEALING WITH PARAGRAPHS

 

UNIT 1. COHERENCE

COHERENCE means «reasonable connection» — «an or­derly relationship between parts». It's the quality that makes the difference between a set of UNconnected phrases or clauses, on the one hand, and a simple, compound or complex sentence, on the other hand (see Unit 2 of the Appendix [Section V of Part II] on Compound and Complex Sentence Patterns). It also makes the difference between a set of UNconnected sentences and a PARAGRAPH (which is a set of CONNECTED sentences). Finally, the same quality — COHERENCE — makes the differ­ence between a set of UNconnected paragraphs and a TEXT.

The writer makes his sentences, paragraphs and text coher­ent by using various cues and signals that establish the «orderly relationship» between the various parts of his sentences, be­tween the various sentences in his paragraphs, and between the various paragraphs in his text. It is the job of the reader to follow these cues and signals and understand the relationships.

 

CUES AND SIGNALS USED TO ESTABLISH COHERENCE

1. Grammatical Signals such as conjunctions (Section V of Part II Unit 4; the position of a given word in the sentence (Section V, Unit 2); and grammatically meaningful word end­ings (Word Power [Part I] Section X, Unit IE).

2. Punctuation Signals (Section V of Part II, Unit 3).

3. Visual Cues such as paragraph indentation.

4. Verbal Cues such as repeated words (to emphasize con­nections).

5. Pronouns (to refer backwards and forwards instead of simply repeating words).

6. Various Other Verbal Cues (Section V of part II, Unit 6).

A. Which of these two «sentences» makes some kind of sense (and why)? (How can a sentence make «sense» without being logical?)

a. Sleep green colorless furiously ideas.

b. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

B. The sentences that make up a coherent paragraph must be grammatically and logically connected. What makes the «paragraph» below incoherent?

People love music. There are carbon granules in the tele­phone receiver. Although the Japanese people are remarkable. Her dog was killed. In the southern part of Jordan there is a place of unique historical interest.

C. Now consider the paragraph below:

Cecil, the aardvark, was a strange pet. Because of his exotic eating habits, he was able to rid the house of insects. What he devoured most often were the little dark ants. He was often seen routing these out with his long ugly snout. Granted, his snout made him an excellent exterminator. However, it also made him an unusual household pet.

List the features that make this a coherent paragraph.

 

D. Below is another example of a COHERENT parapraph. The various devices used by the writer to establish coherence have been clearly marked, and they include the following:

1. Pronouns. The «we» in sentence 5 hooks back not only to «higher animals» but to the readers themselves, referred to in the first sentence with «our».

2. Summary nouns and pronouns. The «this» in sentence 6 pulls together the entire paragraph by referring to «experiment» and «play» in sentence 5 and to the «process of learning» in sentence 1. Sometimes a summary noun will do this job. For example, sentence 6 might have read: «Perhaps the nature of trial run is what gives. .»

3. Repeated words. «Scientist», «learning», and «errors» reappear.

4. Repeated stems. Bronowski used «an experiment» (the noun) followed by «experiments» (the verb).

5. Rewording of the same idea. A «harmless trial run» is later redefined as a «setting in which errors are not fatal».

6. Punctuation. Colons usually tell us that an explanation, an example or a list follows. Semicolons connect two main clauses that generally are closely related.

7. Parallel construction. The grammatically parallel con­struction of «the scientist experiments and the cub plays» (sen­tence 5) emphasizes the parallel connection Bronowski wishes to make.

Cues and Signals Used to Establish Coherence

D: A passage with many word and phrase cues

Source: Jacob Bronowski. The Common Sense of Science (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953).

 

3.1 In the following paragraph the cues and signals that es­tablish coherence have been underlined. Study each one and decide what type of coherence device it is. (Refer to the list of devices preceding the Bronowski text above).

Rescue dogs are often specially trained to work in areas where a bomb or earthquake has buried people in debris. Their job is to locate where the persons are buried so that rescuers can dig them out before they suffocate or die of other injuries. Since the dog must guide rescuers to the spot, he must be willing to sit and bark until help comes. As a result some dogs, including collies, shepherds, airedales, and, in fact, most working breeds, can be trained for rescue; others can't. Spaniels, setters, and some hounds, for example, refuse to bark once they have found their person. Although they would bark at home if someome came to the door, these hunting breeds have been selectively bred not to bark while working because it would scare the game.

3.2 Reorder the sentences below so that they form a coher­ent paragraph.*

__ a. But because many new summer workers don't know how to move large trees, the best ways to handle the equip­ment, handle the trucks, or the large plants, their job is much harder.

__ b. Yet Timmerman does little to help summer employ­ees in these areas.

__ c. Or at least it shouldn't be.

__ d. Timmerman Landscape Co. Inc. is a local nursery that has recently moved into doing landscaping.

__ e. There is a waiting list for these jobs because the pay is good and the work is outdoors but not as heavy as construc­tion work.

__ f. They have a year-round staff of around ten people, but in the summer they hire a lot of summer help to meet peak summer workloads.

__ g. Most of the summer help are college students.

* (Key: a-6; b-7; c-5; d-1; e-4; f-2; g-3)

2. What features of each sentence help you determine its position in the paragraph?

 

UNIT 2. OLD AND NEW INFORMATION

(Another Coherence Device)

In a paragraph, the writer usually establishes coherence be­tween sentences by referring back, in the first part of each sentence, to what the reader already knows (Old Information) and by adding the (New ) information that leads his argument forward in the second part of each sentence.

Notice how this pattern of Old Information leading to New Information works in the following:

Shopping for a Turkey

 

 

Old ... New . . .

 

The old information

was stated in the

title.

 

 

In buying a turkey, you get more meat your money from a whole bird than from a boned, rolled turkey roast.

 

 

 

 

The reference to "the whole bird" is old information from the preceding sentence.

 

 

Old ... New . . .

And the bigger that whole bird is, the

more meat you will have in

proportion to bone.

 

 

 

Old ... New . . .

A turkey weighing less than 12 pounds

is one-half waste.

 

 

 

The reference to a turkey's weight

is old information, but the fact of

one-half waste is new.

 

 

 

 

 

«As a result» is old information,

reffering to the points made previously in the paragraph.

 

Old ... New . . .

As a result, it is more economical to buy half of a lage, 20 pounder than to buy a small, 10-pound turkey.

 

 

 

 

At times this pattern of moving from old information to new information is broken. For example:

Old ...               New . . .                                                                                                                              And the bigger that whole bird is, the more meat

 

New . . .                                                                                                                                                                              you will have in proportion to bone. One-half

Old  . . .

                                       waste is what you'll get with a turkey weighing

                                      less that 12 pounds.

Sometimes the sentence with new information at the be­ginning is confusing and needs rereading. However, by violat­ing expectations, you can also create surprise and emphasis, as the sentence above did by surprising us with the phrase, «One-half waste . . .» To sum up, then, you can use various kinds of repetition, including the old information / new information pattern, to make clear connections between sentences.

Exercise:

A. In the following paragraph, underline the part of each sentence that presents New Information.

Behavior of People in Groups

Often people who hold the higher positions in a given group overestimate their performance. Although this may not always be true, it does indicate that the actual position in the group has much to do with the degree of confidence a person may have. Thus a group member is more likely to feel highly confi­dent about his own performance if he holds a high position in the group or feels he has an important part to play.

B. Which sentence «violates» expectations by putting the New Information first?

 

UNIT 3. THE ORDERING OF SENTENCES IN A PARAGRAPH * 

* Based on «Interactive Text Processing» in Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading, ed. Patricia Cavell and David Eskey.

                                               Some of the Common Ordering Systems Are:

1. TIME ORDER                                                                                                                                                         Time Order — (information organized in a chronology, time sequence).

 

Words that are clues or signal words often used when writ­ing in chronological or time order:

first, next, last, in the end, days, dates, soon, later, finally, eventually, times, later on, in the meantime, afterwards, not long after, at the end, at last, right away, in the beginning.

2. COMPARISON/CONTRAST

Comparison/contrast — (information organizes to show simi­larities, differences, advantages, disadvantages. Speaker's per­spective may be neutral or may take a position).

Words that are clues or signal words of a comparison or contrast:

but, different, however, like, contrary to, comparative forms (e.g., faster, slower), rather, on the contrary, as, in the same way, instead, yet, similarly, on the other hand.

 

3. COLLECTION OF DESCRIPTIONS

Collection of descriptions — (information organized by a simple listing of facts or ideas relating to the same topic)

Words that are clues or signal words of a collection of de­scriptions:

some, others, many, a few, other, also, first, second, third, finally, in addition, lastly, all.

4. CAUSE AND EFFECT

Cause and Effect — (information organized by showing the cause or causes of an event or situation, of the effects of some event or situation, or both).

Words that are clues or signal words of a cause/effect pat­tern:

result, cause, effect, lead to, due to, consequently, because of, create, become, come about.

Exercise:

Below are four paragraphs about Sir Isaac Newton.

A. Read each paragraph, and then choose one sentence from the extra sentences below and write the letter for that sentence next to the paragraph in which it would fit best. One of the sentences will not be used.

B. Label each paragraph according to the system by which the sentences are ordered (use the four labels given above «Time Order»; «Comparison/Contrast»; «Collection of descriptions»; or «Cause and Effect»).

Paragraph 1

Sir Isaac Newton worked on many important scientific prob­lems. First, there was his development of the laws of motion. He also made important discoveries about optics and the na­ture of color. His other work included ideas about astronomy, chemistry, and logic. And finally, he produced the Principia, a book which explained his law of universal gravitation.

Paragraph 2

Isaac Newton was born in England in 1642. He went to Trinity College, Cambridge University, in 1661 at the age of 18. In 1665, the plague swept through England, and Newton left school and returned to his family home in Woolsthorpe. It was there that he began most of his best work. He published his famous book, the Principia, in 1682. And in 1699 he was made the director of the English Mint. Sir Isaac Newton died in 1727 and he is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Paragraph 3

Although the two men were both geniuses, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein have very little else in common. True, they both did their most important and famous work before the age of 26. But there are great differences between them. «Proper behavior» was most important to Newton, while Einstein liked to be different. Newton spent his later years working for the government, while Einstein spent his entire life doing science.

Paragraph 4

Newton did most of his best work during his stay in Woolsthorpe from 1665 to 1668. Many writers have tried to find out what caused him to produce all of those great ideas in such a short time. Was it the peace and quiet of the small town that caused his creative powers to increase? The causes may never be known, but the effects of Newton's genius are still felt today.

Extra sentences:

a. Some people think that a falling apple caused Newton to think of the law of universal gravitation.

b. Present-day physicists have discovered limits to the me­chanical universe which Newton described.

c. In addition, he invented differential and integral calcu­lus.

d. They say Isaac Newton never smiled, but Albert Einstein had a great sense of humor.

e. In fact, by age 26, he had alredy completed most of his best work.

SECTION IV

DEALING WITH TEXTS

 

UNIT 1. TYPES OF DISCOURSE

 

(THE FUNCTION OF A TEXT AND HOW IT DETERMINES THE WAY WE READ IT)

According to James Kinneavy (in A Theory of Discourse), there are two basic types of discourse (i.e., text).

A. the type (or mode) of discourse whose main function is to EXPRESS the feelings, ideas, emotions, beliefs, wishes, in­tentions, etc. of the WRITER or SPEAKER

Examples: diaries, personal journals, prayers, manifestos, contracts, constitutions, religious credos, myths

B. the type (or mode) of discourse whose primary function is to COMMUNICATE something TO A READER or LISTENER.

 

In COMMUNICATIVE discourse, according to Kinneavy, the emphasis can be on one of three different aspects of the communicative process:

REFERENTIAL

Emphasis on:

 

LITERARY

Emphasis on:

 

Form of Presentation The

PERSUASIVE

Emphasis on:

 

The effect on the

 Reader that the

 subject-matter is

 meant to have.

 

 

Subject Matter,

 

Information:

 

The information

 

is presented, described,

 

Defined, diagnosed,

 

Proved, or related in

 

an informative manner

 

 

 

Examples:

 

      

        Examples:                                         Examples:

        novels                                               advertisements

        poems                                               sermons

 

Textbooks

 

scientific articles

 

                                            dramas                                              political speeches

 

                                            Jokes

 

It is important to remember that texts are seldom purely Referential, Literary, or Persuasive. Most texts have some of the characteristics of more than one of these categories, but they belong primarily in one of them. The determining factor is prob­ably the writer's intention: i.e., the primary function that he intended his text to serve. The types overlap because, for ex­ample, the writer may have intended his text to be primarily persuasive, but he may well have found it necessary to include a lot of referential material, informing the reader about the sub­ject and even supplying scientific facts to sound more convinc­ing. He may also have found it effective to employ certain liter­ary techniques in order to be especially persuasive (e.g., he may have used jokes, rhymed verse, or figures of speech to make the text livelier and to have a stronger effect on his readers).

However, each of these three types of discourse (determined by the writer's primary purpose) has its own interior logic, its own traditional organizational patterns, and its own stylistic peculiarities (e.g., the level of the language — its formality or informality).

If the reader can recognize the determining features of the type of text he has in front of him (e.g., if he recognizes the traditional form of a scientific report, with its sections devoted to the writer's hypothesis, the report on the experiment, the results of the experiment, and the writer's conclusions) then he knows something useful about HOW TO READ IT.

Questions:

a. Which part of a scientific report would you read carefully (after glancing briefly through the rest of the text), if you're not really interested in how the experiment was done or why it was done, but you know you will be required to explain why it was important?

b. Which of the three types of discourse would you nor­mally read most intensively, hardly skipping a word?

c. Why does a joke stop being funny when you try to ex­plain it?

d. Which of the three types of discourse would it normally be safest to glance over superficially, simply to get a general idea of what the writer is getting at?

Exercise A:

1. Using Kinneavy's categories, how would you describe the following piece of discourse («On Silence»)? Is it in the style of a diary or journal? — of a textbook? — of a novel or a poem? — of a sermon? — of any other kind of writing with which you are familiar?

2. What is the common assumption about the nature of silence that the writer intends to qualify or modify in some way?

3. What geographic location does the writer seem to have in mind while describing the various types of silence?

ON SILENCE

Extract from the «Wartime Writings: 1939-44» of Antoine de Saint-Exupery (The Yew York Times Book Review, Sept. 14,1986).

One silence even diners from another. There is the tranquil silence when tribes are at peace, when night brings coolness and one seems to be anchored with furled sails in a quiet har­bor. There is the midday silence when the sun suspends all thought and movement. There is the deceptive silence when the north wind bears down, bringing insects borne like pollen from the oases of the interior and heralding the advent of a sandstorm from the East. There is the silence of conspiracy when it is known that a distant tribe is preparing to revolt. There is the silence of mystery when the Arabs are gathered together for one of their secret meetings. There is the pregnant silence when the messenger is late returning, the shrill silence when in the night one holds one's breath in order to hear, the melancholy silence when one remembers one's beloved.

Exercise B:

There are many different organizational or discourse struc­tures which may be used in creating any type of text. Some of the common patterns are: describing, defining, comparing, contrasting, analyzing, giving examples, classifying, presenting information chronologically, presenting information of a cause and/or effect nature. Which type(s) of organization seem to apply to the excerpt «On Silence»?

 

UNIT 2. READING STRATEGIES

DIFFERENT KINDS OF TEXTS, SERVING DIFFERENT PURPOSES, REQUIRE DIFFERENT READING STRATEGIES

The following are the most commonly used strategies for reading scientific texts:

A. SKIMMING -                                                                                                             This involves:

1. Reading through the opening section until you have some idea of what the writer's thesis is — what he's out to reveal or prove. Usually the first paragraph will be enough, but some­times the writer doesn't get down to his actual thesis until after a few introductory paragraphs. If this seems to be the case, glance over the introductory section and only begin reading carefully after the writer actually gets down to the issue he's presently concerned with. Then when you feel you know what his thesis is, you can start to «skim» rapidly through the rest of the text.

2. Glancing over the rest of the text, paragraph by para­graph, trying to locate the key sentence within each paragraph and to follow the writer's train of thought (to follow his argu­ment). If you get lost (if you find that you no longer know what he's talking about) backtrack a bit and try to find out where you got lost and what new idea he introduced at that point (you may have missed it because it was in the middle of a paragraph, and not at the beginning or end, where new ideas are most commonly introduced).

3. Reading through the closing section to see if you actually did understand the thesis in the opening section (which, pre­sumably, you were able to follow by glancing through the body of the text). The conclusion usually refers back to the opening and confirms the thesis presented there, sometimes summariz­ing the important material in the body of the text which was meant to support the thesis.

B. SCANNING

This involves glancing over the individual lines of the text, looking for specific pieces of information (names, dates, sub­titles, a key sentence introducing a specific idea you're par­ticularly interested in, the place in the text where one section ends and a new idea is introduced, etc.)

C. READING INTENSIVELY

Once you know which parts of the text contain the infor­mation you're particularly interested in, you can concentrate on reading those parts with special care, weighing each word to make sure that you haven't misunderstood or missed anything the writer communicated either directly (explicitly) or indi­rectly (implicitly). Look up the words you don't understand in a good dictionary. If you're not sure you understood exactly what the writer means, go back to see if the preceding context is helpful. If that doesn't help, read ahead to see if what fol­lows clarifies for you.

Exercise:

The following list includes various kinds of texts. Decide which of the three strategies — or which combination of them, and in what order — would be suitable for each:

1. a menu

2. a page in the dictionary

3. a road map

4. a diagram in a scientific article

5. an article in a scientific journal reporting on the research of someone in your field whose work you admire

6. an article in «Time» or «Newsweek»

7. a caption under a photograph

8. a page in the telephone book

9. an advertisement for something you're thinking of buying

10. a label on a food package

11. instructions for the use of a new appliance

12. the note included in the box of a prescription drug giving active ingredients, dosage, side effects, storage instruc­tions, etc.

13. a book on your course bibliography

14. a poem

15. a short story

16. a novel

17. a set of classroom notes borrowed from your friend before the final exam in a course you have seldom attended

18. an article written by a professor whose course you're taking

 

UNIT 3. WHAT TITLES TELL US

Below is a list of text titles followed by a set of questions. Answer the questions by relating them to each of the text titles on the list.

1. Why Computers Can't Be Poets

2. No Man's Land: The Place of the Woman Writer in the Twentieth Century

3. Crime and Poverty

4. Rethinking the Holocaust

5. Overcoming Unemployment

6. The Task of Modern Philosophy

7. Towards A Humanistic Medicine in A Modern Age

8. Morality and Foreign Policy

9. Learning the Hard Way: How to Help Children with Learning Disorders.

10. What is A Historical Fact?

11. Education and the I.Q.

12.The Economic Organization of the Prisoner of War Camp

13. A Cultural History of the French Revolution

14. Political Development and Social Change

15. A Brief History of Time

16. The Common Interest: How Our Social Welfare Policies Don't Work, and What We Can Do About Them

17. Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Conse­quences

18. Signs in the Wilderness

Questions:

a. Within what academic field/s does this text probably be­long?

b. (i) Does the title reveal what the specific subject of the text is, or does it keep you guessing? (Note that sometimes the title keeps you guessing, but the sub-title explains it), (ii) Glance at the brief abstract under the title «Signs in the Wil­derness» in Part IV. Could you have guessed what the subject of this text is from its title? (Why not?)

с. Does the title reveal whether the subject matter is highly specialized (and hence suitable for professionals) or general (and hence suitable for a wider audience of laymen)?

d. Most titles include more than one concept (e.g., «Why Computers Can't be Poets»; «Crime and Poverty»; «What is A Historical Fact?» (This includes the concept of «historicity», or of being historically authentic; and the concept of being factual). What, if anything, does the title you are considering imply or state directly about the relationship between the con­cepts it includes?

e. Does the title (or subtitle) reveal anything about the writer's thesis, or his point of view with regard to the sub­ject of the article?

 

UNIT 4. DIFFERENT WAYS OF PRESENTING INFORMATION

The writer of a text may decide to present part of the infor­mation graphically instead of (or as well as) verbally. He may introduce diagrams, pictorial representations, or flowcharts to illustrate a sequence of concepts or operations and the rela­tionships between them. Diagrams and other schematic forms of presentation can help to clarify complex verbal expositions. They also tend to be easier to remember.

Note how the following flowchart simplifies and clarifies the verbal exposition that follows it:

 


Figure 5 Flowchart of «Waves» text (from Geva 1983: 387), from: «Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading» Cavell and Eskey

 

WAVES

Waves are caused, as nearly everyone knows, by the wind.Two classes of waves may be distinguished; the long roll­ers at the coast, and the far more irregular forms of the open seas, where waves of all sizes and types are present. The size and speed of waves depends not only on the wind's speed but on the length of time the wind has been blowing, and the unbroken stretch of water over which it blows as well. Very strong winds tend to beat down the waves' height and to re­duce wave speed. On the other hand, less violent but steady winds often produce wave speeds greater than that of the wind itself. The average maximum wave length is about 36 feet, although occasional higher waves have been measured.

Exercise:

Make a flowchart to clarify the following text:

Thert has been a long history of interest in the question of whether body build and personality are related. One approach to this issue is the constitutional view, which postulates that the individual's biological consitution gives rise to both physi­cal and psychological attributes and thus that these two sets of attributes are inevitably interrelated.

 

UNIT 5. TYPES OF SCHOLARLY

(ACADEMIC) ARTICLES*

* Based on the Modern Language Association Style Manual (1985), ed. Walter S. Achtert and Joseph Gibaldi

 

Scholarly articles are of several types, among them:

a. factual/critical articles

b. book reviews

c. review essays

d. reviews of research

e. research reports.

Scholars also write articles for audiences not restricted to specialists in their own field; such articles may discuss, for example, the current state of understanding in a discipline or matters of public interest from the point of view of a particular discipline.

FACTUAL/CRITICAL ARTICLES

Current usage blurs the sharp dictinction that was once observed between «scholarly», or factually based, articles and «critical», or theoretically based, articles. Either type requires the scholar to:

a. demonstrate familiarity with the previous scholarship of the topic

b. suggest an original thesis

c. present supporting evidence

d. point to the significance of the proposition advanced

The best scholarly articles incorporate all four aspects in a proportion appropriate to the subject and audience.

Exercise:

1.      Read the following texts:

 

A. Education and Tolerance                                                                                                    B. The Outsiders

2. For each text, decide which of the above labels best describes the type of text it is.

3. A. Decide which of the four aspects of a typical schol­arly text it incorporates.

B. For each of the aspects that it does incorporate, note the number of the paragraph/s in which that aspect is devel­oped.

 

UNIT 6. GENERAL QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES THAT CAN (AND SHOULD) BE APPLIED TO ANY TEXT

YOU READ FOR ANY PURPOSE*                                                                                                        

(Not necessarily in this order)

* Adapted from Exercise by Arthur Schneiderman, Dept. of EFL

 

A.

1. What is the subject area of the article (judging by the title)?

2. What information or knowledge do you already have about the subject (before you have read the article)?

3. What is your purpose in reading this article? Have you been given any guidelines for reading this article? If so, what are they.

4. What are the writer's basic assumptions, his hypothesis (or hypotheses), and his main thesis?

5. What historical or other background material does the writer provide?

6. What is the writer's plan or method of organization? Does any one type of text structure dominate this article? i.e.:

a. Does the writer define a word or concept?

b. Does the writer compare/contrast two ideas?

c. Does the writer describe a historical event — causes lead­ing up to the event, results of the event or both?

d. Does the writer analyze a situation or event, providing us at the outset with a generalization and following this up by supporting evidence (deductive organization)?

e. Does the writer begin with the details and end with a generalization (inductive organization)?

f. Does the writer first present the arguments of other writ­ers, only to refute them, and then finally, present his own viewpoint on the subject? (e.g., consider Towards a Humanis­tic Medicine and The Outsiders in Part IV.)

g. Does the writer use some combination of the above rhetorical text structures and organizing patterns to develop his argument?

7. What is/was the writer's purpose in writing this article?

8. What kind of writing characterizes this article (expres­sive? informational? a combination of both? Which one of them dominating?)*

* See Types of Discourse, Unit 1 of Section IV (Part II).

9. What questions or problems are discussed?

10. What other researchers who support his point of view does he mention?

11. What points of view other than his own does the writer present?

12. What evidence or data does the writer present to sup­port his ideas?

13. What definitions (of special terminology, or terms he uses in a special way) are presented by the writer?

14. What examples does he bring in to illustrate each of his ideas?

15. What reservations or qualifications are made by the writer? Is he making a strong or weak claim for each of the points in the thesis?

16. Is he convincing? Why (or why not)?

17. Determine if, and where, the writer makes use of such rhe­torical devices as: (a) irony; (b) humor; (c) appeal to the emotions; (d) analogy; (e) figures of speech (metaphors, similes); (f) repetition for purposes of stressing important points; rhetorical questions.

18. Summarize the main points of this article in 2-3 paragraphs.

19. What difficulties did you have in reading this text? (Vo­cabulary? Sentence structure? Following the writer's argument? Missing background information?)

 

20. How closely does this article fit in with the lectures andcourse work for which you are reading it?

Hints on Answering Objective Test Questions About a Text

1. Always read the questions very carefully: at least as care­fully as you read the text they are based on. In a question, every word is important.

2. Watch out for statements in true-false or multiple-choice questions that have the little, but important, qualifying words such as not, some, can, must, may, most, very, hardly, often, always, usually, never, or seldom. They affect the meaning of the sentence.

Double negatives are tricky; «the idea was not unattractive» means that the idea was attractive. (See Unit 8 of Section II [Part II]). Also, make sure that you have read the relevant part of the text to the very end of the idea being expressed. The writer may begin by suggesting that one thing may be true, but then go on to decide that the opposite is true!

3. In answering multiple-choice questions, cross out the choices you're sure are wrong for some reason (e.g., because they make no sense; because they obviously contradict something stated in the text; etc) and concentrate on the ones that are left.

4. In answering matching questions (where items from one column are matched to items in a second column), lightly cross out the items you've already used (lightly - because you may change your mind); that way you can keep track of the one's you still have to work with.

5. You may be asked to fill in blanks in a sentence. Be careful; after filling in the blank, reread the whole question just to be sure the completed statement makes sense, and is in reasonably good English.

6. Always reread your answer to short answer questions to make sure you wrote what you meant. It's probably a good idea to translate your answer from English into your native language to make sure that it makes sense.

 

UNIT 7. READING/WRITING ABSTRACTS*

* Based on a Manual-Publications of the American Psycholigical Asso­ciation Abstracts (1974)

An abstract is a brief summary of the content and purpose of an article. In some journals, the abstract is used in place of a concluding summary. The abstract allows readers to survey the contents of an article quickly. It is self-contained, fully intelligible without reference to the body of the paper. Infor­mation or conclusions that do not appear in the paper are not supposed to appear in the abstract.

(suggested length: 100-175 words)

I. An Abstract of a Research Article usually includes:

1. statement of problem

2. method

3. results

4. conclusions

It should specify: subject population (number, type, age, sex, etc.)

It should describe: research design, test instruments (i.e. questionnaires, tests, interviews), research apparatus of data gathering procedures

It should summarize: data or findings

It should report: inferences or comparisons or conclusions drawn from results

II. An Abstract of a Review or a Theoritical Article should include:

1. Topics covered

2. Central thesis

3. The Sources used (i.e. personal observation of author, review of published literature, or present, current research bear­ing on topic and conclusions drawn)

It should be short but informative.

 

Exercise:

A. Read the abstracts in the following set of 9. Categorize each abstract as one based on:

(a) a research article

(b) a review of research in a given field

(c) a theoretical article.

B. Using I and II above as an inventory checklist, see how many of the items listed for each type of article can be found in each of the abstracts.

Abstract No. 1

Kufeldt, Kathleen & Nimmo, Margaret (Faculty Social Wel­fare U Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4), Youth on the Street: «Abuse and Neglect in the Eighties», CHILD ABUSE AND NE­GLECT, 1987, 11, 4, 531-542.

A report on an interview study of runaways & homeless youth (n = 489) conducted over a 1-year period in Calgary, Alberta. Analysis reveals two distinct groups: the true «run­ners» tend to leave their homes with the intention of not re­turning & thus their runs are extended: «in & outers» use the run as a temporary coping mechanism & their runs tend to be impulsive & of short duration. Findings also indicate that run­aways, in particular the runners, are at great risk of being drawn into illegal activities; major factors affecting this risk are dis­tance from home & length of time on the run. A significant proportion of Rs had run from substitute care arrangements. Results imply that adolescents in Canadian society suffer from systemic abuse & neglect. This researh led to the opening of a safe house for early runners in Jan. 1987. The operation of the house includes careful compilation of data to further advance understanding of the runaway population & its needs. 4 Tables, 6 Figures, 1 Appendix, 19 References. Modified HA (Copy­right 1989, Socioligical Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved).

Abstract No. 2

Tinsley, Barbara J. & Parke, Ross D. (Dept Speech Commu­nication U Illinois, Urbana 61801), «Grandparents as Interac­tive and Social Support Agents for Families with Young In­fants», INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGING AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, 1987, 25, 4, 259-277.

The role of grandparents in infant development is investi­gated in a comparative analysis of grandparent-infant grand­child & parent-child interaction patterns in 30 Caucasian Mc families. The extent to which grandparents serve as social sup­port agents for their adult children & grandchildren is also examined. Observations of dyadic play sessions between 51 grandparents & their 30 7-month old grandchildren were com­pared with those between the infants & their parents using both time-sampling & global coding schemes; information on grandparental support relative to other social support services was obtained via questionnaires completed by both parents & grandparents. Results indicate that both grandmothers & grand­fathers are interactive & support agents, with a pattern of simi­larities & differences in interactive style evident across genera­tion & gender. There is a high degree of overlap in parent and grandparent interaction style, but parents appear more compe­tent; both parents & grandparents report a high degree of satis­faction with their level of intergenerational contact. Results support an expanded view of the effects of various agents in young children's social environments. 3 Tables, 40 References. Modified HA (Copyright, 1989, Sociological Abstracts, Ins., all rights reserved).

Abstract No. 3

Chovanes, Andrew B. «On Vietnamese and other Peasants», JOURNAL OF SOUTHEAT ASIAN STUDIES (Singapore) 1986 17(2): 203-235. There are serious theoretical and meth­odological issues concerning revolutionary activity. These are examined in extensive critiques of James Scott's The Moral Economy of the Peasantry and Samuel Popkin's The Rational Peasant, both studies of the Vietnamese peasant's role in the revolution, in the light of other work on peasants. Proposed is a «transcultural grammar that would view history as non-pro-gressional, not the inevitable outcome of class conflict, the most revolutionary group as that with nothing to lose, the pres­ence of organizational factors which provide a new form of consciousness». 175 notes.

P.M. Gustafson

Abstract No. 4

Vasquez, John A. «Capability, types of War, Peace». WEST­ERN POLITICAL QUARTERLY 1986 39(2): 313-327. Whether a balance of power or a preponderance of power produces peace has long been a debate within the traditional literature. The quantitative analysis of Singer, Bremer, and Stuckey (1972) added to this puzzle the findinig that the balance of power was associ­ated with peace in the 19th century but with war in the 20th century. A careful review of that study, more recent empirical work, and the logic underlying traditional explanations suggest that neither a balance nor a preponderance of power is associ­ated with peace, but with different types of war. The author utilized both behavioral and historical approaches to construct a typology of war that will more clearly elucidate the varying role of capability in different wars. Classifies wars along three di­mensions — whether they are fought between equals or unequals; are limited or total; or are dyadic or complex.

Abstract No. 5

Seccombe, Ian J. «Immigrant Workers in Emigrant Economy: An Examination of Replacement Migration in the Middle East». INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION (Belgium) 1986 24(2): 377-396. Jordan, with its relatively skilled labor force experienced significant unmonitored labor emigration to meet the growing regional demand for labor that followed the 1973-74 oil price increases. During this period, however, do­mestic labor demand was also increasing dramatically. This demand was met, to a great extent, by undocumented workers. Legal foreign workers in the mid-1970s, in accordance with Jordan's 1960 labor law, were predominantly from other Arab countries, but Asian workers, usually under contract to Asian

companies operating in Jordan, increased in number rapidly in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Considerable exploitation of foreign workers and abuse of the labor law have occurred. 27 ref., 6 tables. French and Spanish summaries.

C.Moody

Abstract No. 6

Soffer, Amon. «Lebanon — Where Demography is the Core of Politics and Life». MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES (Great Britain) 1986 22(2); 197-205. Government and intercommu-nal relations in Lebanon since 1943 have been based on a solitary population census taken in 1932, which has resulted in political relationships in the state being based on a ratio of 6:5 in favor of the Christians. This article attempts to establish the size of Lebanon's population, the sizes of the various groups within it, and the population distribution. In all cases figures could only be estimated based on best available data, but they showed that the Muslims had become a majority, that geo­graphical distribution had changed little, and that the demo­graphic strength of the Muslim community and its socioeconomic weakness were factors that could not be ignored if Leba­non were to have a future. Based on statistics from the Leba­nese government, the UN and UNRWA and secondary sources; 3 tables, map, 27 notes.

F.A. Clements

Abstract No. 7

Mohan, Bernard and Helmer, Sylvia. «Context and Second Language Development: Preschoolers' Comprehension Ges­tures». (UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA). There is wide agreement that non-verbal information, and contextual information generally, plays an important role in language understanding for second language learners. This raises the question of whether learners understand non-verbal communi­cation. The «traditional» view of the role of context in lan­guage learning assumes that they do. The «social semiotic» view does not, holding that contextual understanding is devel­oped in the process of communicative interaction. Contextual understanding is therefore likely to vary with age and cultural familiarity.

This paper investigates the understanding of English speak­ers' gestures by preschool children, comparing native English speakers (age four to five) with non-native speakers. Thirty -six emblems and illustrators, two forms of commonly used ges­tures, were decoded by forty children, twenty native speakers, and twenty English as a second language (ESL) speakers. The gestures chosen were screened by a panel of ten ESL teachers who considered them to be typical of classroom interaction.

It was found that the children, on average, understood about half of the gestures. ESL children understood less than native speakers. Analysis of variance results indicate that there is an effect for age as well as a strong effect for cultural familiarity (native speakers vs. ESL). There were significant correlations for the sequence of acquisition of gestures across all groups.

Results therefore contradicted the «traditional» view and were consistent with the «social semiotic» view. It is suggested that research on the role of context in second language learn­ing should take account of the social semiotic and study the mutual development of language learning and cultural learning in the process of communicative interaction.

 

UNIT 8. READING/WRITING A SUMMARY

A. READING SUMMARIES WITHIN A TEXT

When skimming a long text, a good reader can spot those parts of the text where the writer has summarized the points of his argument — either before he is about to present these points, or just after he has presented them. This is basically the same reading skill involved in spotting the sentence which seems to summarize the main ideas in each paragraph.

In some long texts, the entire introductory section may be a summary of the important points in the text (i.e., it may be a plan or map of the argument that the writer is about to present). In such cases, the introductory section serves the same function as the Preface or Foreward to a book.

Similarly, a writer may pause to summarize what he has already told us before going on to some new aspect of his argument. Such brief summaries are easier to spot if the writer has included subtitles for each part of his argument. The sum­mary of each part would most likely be found at the end of that part (before the next subtitle), end is often signaled by words such as: thus, hence, in brief, on the whole, summing up, to conclude and conclusion.

The final section of a long academic article is often a sum­mary of the main ideas in the article. When this is the case, by reading the introductory and final sections — even before he has skimmed the body of the text — the reader can get a good idea of what the paper is all about.

In general, an introductory summary should be used as a guide to reading: it's as useful to the reader as a map is to the navigator of some unknown territory. A concluding summary helps the reader to control for important points he may have missed or misunderstood in the course of reading the body of the text. The skilled reader will immediately go back to the body of the text to find or clarify anything in the summary that is unfamiliar or unclear.

B. WRITING A SUMMARY (AFTER HAVING READ A TEXT)

There is a paradox involved in trying to summarize a text. On the one hand, the summary must be general and focus on the most important ideas, at times substituting a single gener­alization for an extended segment of text, or not even men­tioning other segments of the text because in your judgement, they add nothing new. For example, you may refer to part of the text as «the author's analysis of English economy» even though the text does not provide that label. On the other hand, your summary must be specific and refer to important facts, to points crucial to the development of the argument, or even to examples that provide essential support. It should also be writ­ten in precise and specific language that reflects your analysis of the text.

Before you can write a good summary you must understand and analyze the text. You will probably have to read the text, or at least parts of the text, more than once in order to answer such questions as the following:

1. What is the controlling idea or the main idea of the article?

2. What is the purpose of the article (regardless of whether the purpose is stated explicitly or only implied)?

3. How does the author develop his main idea — that is, what information is used to support the argument and how is the information organized?

4. What is the author's attitude toward the subject?

Theoretically, a summary can be as short as a single sen­tence or as long as about one fourth of the original. How long a summary should be and what kinds of information it should include and leave out depends on the purpose of the summary. If you are summarizing an article in order to organize and study the information it presents for an examination, for ex­ample, you will probably prefer a longer summary that in­cludes essential facts and some examples that illustrate impor­tant points. On the other hand, if your purpose is to make a bibliographic note of the main idea of an article you have consulted in writing a paper, a sentence or two may be enough to remind you what the article was about.


GUIDELINES FOR SUMMARY WRITING

1. Read the original text carefully.

2. Identify the controlling idea and the relationships among the major supporting ideas.

3. Decide which examples are necessary for a clear under­standing of the text.

4. Try to use your own words rather than merely quot­ing from the text, except when you are referring to techni­cal or professional terms that have a special technical mean­ing. In that case, you might wish to use the original term and then indicate, in a few words of your own, what it means.

 

5. Write a first sentence which includes the source of your summary and the controlling idea.

6. Indicate whether the author is certain or uncertain of the facts he presents and whether the point of view is his personal one, or one he identifies as belonging to a school of thought.

7. Omit trivial and redundant material. (The writer may express the same idea more than once, and in more than one way, but in your summary the idea should be presented only once).

8. Wherever possible, substitute a general term for any list or items which that term would include (regardless of whether or not the writer has used that general term). This is one way to delete more detailed facts and ideas without ignoring them.

9. Avoid making comments about or adding information to the text. Or, if you wish to add information, a judgement, evaluation, etc. label it specifically as your own opinion, for example: «The author conludes that ... but I don't think the evidence presented really supports this conclusion».

Exercise:

1. Write a long summary of one of the texts in this book, providing the answers to the four questions listed above, and including all of the essential facts (i.e., those necessary to fol­low the argument); and some of the examples used to illustrate these facts and to provide supporting evidence.

2. Write a short summary of one of other texts in the book.

 

SECTION V

APPENDIX

 

UNIT 1. PARTS OF SPEECH

A. The 8 Parts of Speech are:

1. The Noun (n.)

A noun is a name of anything

a. A proper noun is the name of a single particular person or place or thing.

b. A common noun is not the name of a single particular person, place or thing.

c. A collective noun denotes a number of things that to­gether constitute a single group (e.g., «team»; «class»; «furni­ture»).

d. An abstract noun denotes an abstract idea or quality or condition (e.g., «happiness»; «intelligence»).

2. The Pronoun (pron.)

A pronoun is used as a substitute for a noun, or another pro­noun e.g. «Bill gave his sister the box that she asked him for».

Sometimes the pronoun is used as a substitute for a whole group of words preceding it: e.g. «To be or not to be — that is the question».

TYPES OF PRONOUNS:

a. Personal Pronouns — («I»; «you»; «he» etc.)

b. Possessive Pronouns — «My»; «your»; «his»; etc.

c. Relative Pronouns — «Who»; «that»; etc.

d. Demonstrative Pronouns «this»; «that»; «these»; «those»

e. Indefinite Pronouns — «one»; «none»; «all»; «few»; etc.

3. The Verb (v.)

A verb is a term with which one may make an assertion with regard to (a) An Action; or (b) A State, or Condition.

(a) The girl ate the bread, (b) The man was happy.

4. The Adjective (adj.)

An adjective is a term used to describe or limit the meaning of a noun or pronoun.

a.       Descriptive Adjectives - e.g. «beautiful view», b. Intensifying Adjectives - e.g. «great quantity»,

«total disaster».

5. The Adverb (adv.)

An adverb is a term used to modify the meaning of (a) a Verb; (b) an Adjective; or (c) another Adverb.

a. She sang beautifully.

b. Her hat was really unusual.

c. He studied very hard.

i.                    Adverbs of Manner - e.g. «carefully».

ii.                  Adverbs of Place - e.g. «up»; «down».

iii.                Adverbs of Time - e.g. «yesterday».

6. Conjunction (conj.) *

The conjuction is a term that connects words, phrases, or sen­tences, establishing relationship between the elements it connects.

a. Coordinate Conjunctions — e.g. «and»; «yet» etc.

b. Subordinate Conjunctions — e.g. «although»; «if»; «whereas» etc.

7. The Preposition (prep.) **

The preposition is a term that shows relationship between words or phrases.

a. Simple Prepositions — «at»; «by»; «for»; etc.

b. Phrasal Preposition — «because of»; «for the sake of»;  «as well as» etc.

 

c. Participial Prepositions — «concerning»; «regarding»;

«exception» etc.

*See Unit 4 this Section on «The Conjunctions or Connectors of En­glish».

     * See Unit 5 of this Section on «The Prepositions of English».

 

    8. The Interjection (interj.)

The Interjection is a term used to denote some strong or sudden feeling.

e.g. «hey»; «ouch»; «ah»; etc.

B. Other Word Classes:

1. Determiners

a. Articles

i. Indefinite articles — «a»; «an»

ii. Definite Articles — «the»

iii. Ordinal Numbers — «first»; «second» etc.

iv. Counters and Measurers: Cardinal Numbers — «one»;

«two»; etc. Words such as «few»; «several»; «much»; «many» etc.

2. Verbals

a. The Infinitive — «to eat»; «to walk» etc.

b. The Participles

i. The Present Participle — «eating»; «walking» etc.

ii. The Past Participle — «eaten»; «walked» etc.

 

UNIT 2. SENTENCE PATTERNS *

* This unit is based on «Let's Write English George E. Wishon» by and Julia M. Burks

    This section deals with three types of sentences:

I. Simple

II. Compound

III. Complex

I. Simple sentences

There are nine basic patterns:

Sentence Pattern 1

The first pattern to be discussed is one that is simply limited to actor-action, or to put it another way, to subject-predicate. It has only two basic elements: Noun and Verb. (In sentence pattern 1, as in all the sentence patterns that follow, a pronoun may substitute for a noun.) In this pattern the actor acts, but the action stops with the verb. There are no complements, and there are no objects. The verb in this pattern is called intransi­tive for the very reason that no action is transferred to an object. Observe the example sentences, then complete the un­finished sentences.

 

Sentence Pattern 2

This pattern is only a slight variation of pattern one. In fact, it is formed simply by adding an adverb complement, which gives some information about the verb. Observe the pattern and the example sentences. Remember that a pro­noun may substitute for a noun. Complete the unfinished sentences.

 

Sentence Pattern 3

In this sentence pattern, a noun or noun-substitute fol­lows the verb. This new element is called a direct object. The verb is called transitive because it transfers the action of the verb to the direct object. The direct object receives the action of the verb. Observe the pattern and the example sentences. Complete the unfinished sentences.

Sentence Pattern 4

The following pattern is a further extension of the combi­nation Noun + Verb + Noun. In this pattern, two nouns fol­low the verb. The pattern looks like this: Noun + Verb + Noun + Noun. The last noun is the direct object, and the inside noun (the one next to the verb) is the indirect object. The two objects refer to different things. Observe the pattern and the example sentences. Complete the unfinished sentences.


Here are some verbs that function in this pattern: afford, allot, bring, cause, deny, do, envy, fetch, grant, guarantee, hand, lease, leave, lend, make, offer, owe, pass, pay, play, rent, sell, send, show, spare, tell, throw.

You will notice that certain sentences using some of the verbs listed above behave differently from the sentences given inside the frame. All of the sentences in the frame can be rewritten with a preposition to produce the same meaning.

The man teaches the students English.

The man teaches English to the students.

 

He gives them lessons.

He gives lessons to them.

 

Tom wrote his mother a letter.

Tom wrote a letter to his mother.

But consider these sentences:

                                                        I envy Mary her long eyelashes.

We should spare him that humiliation.

  Can you afford me a little of your time?

 

These sentences cannot be rewritten with prepositions. Al­though they have two objects they do not exactly follow the pattern of sentences with a direct object and indirect object. Verbs that occur in sentences like these include spare, envy, afford, cost, deny.

Can these sentences be rewritten with prepositions?

She saved him a seat.

         She saved him a phone call.

The first sentence can be She saved a seat for him without a change in meaning. The second sentence, rewritten in the same way, would lose its original meaning. In this instance, the same verb, depending on its meaning, occurs in either variation of the pattern.

Sentence Pattern 5

This pattern appears at first to be closely related to sentence pattern 4, but on closer examination, it proves to be quite different. In sentence pattern 4 (Noun + Verb + Noun + Noun), the two nouns that followed the verb each referred to different things. In sentence pattern 5, also Noun + Verb + Noun + Noun, the verb is followed by two nouns, but the two nouns refer to the same thing. The first noun after the verb is the direct object, and the second, or last noun, is the object complement. There is an important modification of this pat­tern, in which the object complement is an adjective instead of a second noun. In this case, the adjective describes the direct object, but is also related to the action of the verb. Observe the pattern and the example sentences below. Complete the unfin­ished sentences.

Sentence Pattern 6

In this pattern, a linking verb (LV) connects the subject to a complement which tells something about the subject. The complement is a noun.

The most common linking verb is be. Notice how it is used in the following pattern, but also notice how related linking verbs, become and remain, are also followed by nouns as sub­ject complements in the pattern. Observe the pattern and the example sentences. Complete the unfinished sentences.

 

 

Sentence Pattern 7

This pattern features the linking verbs be, remain, become, but also includes linking verbs such as appear, continue, feel, grow, seem, taste, turn etc. In this pattern, however, the sub­ject complement is an adjective, or (after be and a few other verbs of this group) an adverb of place or adverbial preposi­tional phrase. Observe the pattern and complete the unfinished sentences.

Sentence Pattern 8

Another frequently used pattern combines there as a sort of dummy subject with a linking verb. But there is really not the subject of the sentence at all, as will be seen in the examples. Observe the pattern and the example sentences. Complete the unfinished sentences.

The sentences below are a simple rearrangement of the el­ements of sentence pattern 2. They should not be confused with sentences in pattern 8. When these sentences have a pro­noun for a subject the order of subject and verb is reversed.

There he is.                                                 There it goes.

There she stood, fratically dipping water out of the boat.

Sentence Pattern 9

Another pattern similar to sentence pattern 8 uses it as a dummy subject, but in this case, there is no other subject. Although it has not real meaning, it remains the subject. Ob­serve the pattern and the example sentences. Complete the unfinished sentences.

 

Exercises:

Now do the exercises related to simple sentence patterns in Unit 1 of Section II [Part II]. Then continue with part II, III and IV of this unit (Expanded Simple Sentences, Compound Sentences; and Complex Sentences).

II. Expanded Simple Sentences

All simple sentence patterns may be expanded by the addi­tion of modifying words and phrases.

If a noun is preceded by modifiers of more than one class, the general order is determiners, then adjectives, then parti­ciples, and last, nouns.

A. Types of Modifiers that can precede the noun:

Notice how this unusual combination would appear in a sentence.

Example:The city will demolish those houses.

               The city will demolish those five red brick houses.

               Those houses are unsafe.

               Those five fine old red dilapidated brick houses are unsafe.

B. Types of Modifiers that follow the noun:

1.      Adverbs of place — e.g. «there»; «inside»

«I like the food in there».

«I smelled smoke inside».

2. Prepositional phrases (phrases beginning with a preposi­tion)

«I like the food in that restaurant».

3. Adjectives following the direct object/complement.

 «He likes his coffee hot».

«Work makes her happy».

4. Participial phrases (phrases beginning with a participle)

«the girl smiling at her mother».

«the man hidden behind the curtain».

5. Infinitives

«a place to go».

C. Types of Modifiers that precede the Verb:

Auxiliaries («was»; «have» etc.)

Modals («may»; «should» etc.)

D. Types of Modifiers that follow the verb:

1.      adverbs and adverbial phrases

«He will go happily».

«He will go early tomorrow».

2. Prepositional phrases

«He lives in Chicago».

3. Nouns or noun phrases

«He will come home».

E. Types of modifiers that precede the adjective:

1.      Intensifiers (e.g. «extremely»; «unusually»; etc.)

«He is unusually gifted».

2. Nouns

«ice cold»; «sky blue»

3. Adverbs

«sadly beautiful»

F. Types of modifiers that follow the adjective

1.      Prepositional phrases

«ready for anything»

2.      Infinitives

«good to eat»

G. Types of modifiers that precede the adverb

1. Intensifiers

very slowly

H. Types of modifiers that follow the adverb

1. comparatives

(as) slowly as he could.

Exercises:

Now do the exercises related to expanded simple sentence patterns in Unit 1 of Section II [Part II] above. Then continue with parts III and IV of this Unit (Compound and Complex sentences).

III. Compound Sentences (two or more sentences com­bined by coordination). The following are the connectors used:

A. Conjunctions — sentences may be expanded by combin­ing two or more simple sentences in a single compound sen­tence. This is done with the use of connecting words called conjunctions (of which there are 7).

«and»; «or»; «nor»; «but»; «for»; «so»; «yet»

These conjunctions may also be used to form compound subjects and predicates in simple sentences: e.g. «Mother and father are away.»; «Did you look at home or in the office?»

B. Correlative Conjunctions - These are used in pairs to join two single sentences.

e.g. «either ... or»; «neither ... nor»; «not only ... but also» etc. (these may also be used to join two parallel sentence ele­ments of any kind: e.g. «Either you or I will give it to her»).

C. Connectors (or conjunctive adverbs)

The principal ones are: however; else; therefore; otherwise; moreover; nevertheless; futhermore; hence; also; then; besides; accordingly; consequently; likewise; meanwhile.

D. Compound Connectors

These consist of more than one word: e.g. «in fact»; «on the contrary».

E. The semicolon (;)

This can be used without any other connector e.g. «Cow­ards may die many times before their deaths; the brave men dies but once».

 

Exercises:

Now do the exercises related to Compound Sentence pat­terns in Unit 1 of Section II [Part II] above. Then continue with Part IV of this unit (Complex Sentences).

IV. Complex Sentences (two or more sentences combined by subordination)

Sentences may be expanding by combining two or more simple sentences using subordinators. The result is a complex sentence having a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses.

TYPES OF SUBORDINATE CLAUSES:

1. Noun clauses

A. Noun clauses in a subordinate clause used as a noun. He noticed her nervousness. He noticed that she was nervous.

Like any noun, the noun clause can occur either as the subject of the sentence (before the verb) or in the predicate (after the verb).

Types of Noun Clauses:

«Where he is going is a secret».

(subject of the sentence)

«That is what I think».

(as a predicate complement)

«I will give whoever wins the prize»

(as an indirect object).

«She will name him whatever she wants».

(as the complement of the object «him»)

«She worried about how ill he was».

(as the object of the preposition «about»)

«One fact, that he is brilliant, cannot be denied».

(as an appositive, in apposition to «fact»)

«Remembering what he said, I was careful to be

on time»

(as the object of the participle «remembering»)

«He asked her to read what he had written»

(as the object of the infinitive «to read»)

«Knowing that he is here is a comfort».

(as the object of the gerund [i.e. the present participle] «knowing»).

B. Subordinators which introduce noun clauses can be of the following types:

a. subordinate conjuction: e.g. how (I don't know how he can do it) why (I don't know why he does it» etc.)

b. relative pronouns

When a relative pronoun is used as a subordinator, it some­times acts as a noun, and sometimes as a determiner (i.e., it can either replace a noun, or come before a noun).

We know who wrote the letter, (as a noun) We know which way they went (as a determiner)

2. Adjective clauses

These are used, like an adjective, to modify a noun or a pronoun.

Usually they are introduced by relative pronouns

(e.g. That's the man who came to dinner). Sometimes they are introduced by subordinating conjunctions such as «when»; «where»; and «why»

(e.g. «There's no reason why this should happen»). Some­times the connective is omitted (though it is understood to be there). This occurs only when the information in the subordi­nate clause is essential in defining the noun it modifies.

(e.g. This is the place [where] we saw the accident).

3. Adverb clauses

An adverbial clause is a dependent clause used as an ad­verb; it therefore can modify a verb, an adjective, a verbal, and another adverb.

Adverb:            He studies hard.

Adverb clause: He studies as all his brothers before him have studied.

Adverb:            He went home early.

Adverb clause: He went home as soon as he could.

Although adverbs usually follow the verb of the sentence, adverbial clauses do not occupy any fixed position. The adver­bial clause frequently precedes the subject of the sentence. It also may be found in the middle of the clause it is related to. e.g.  He went home as soon as he could. As soon as he could he went home.

Subordinating Words in Adverb Clauses

A subordinate conjunction, or connective, introduces the adverb clause and connects it with a word in the main clause. The following are frequently used subordinate conjunctions:

Although

As

As if

Even if

As long as

 

as soon as

because

before

after

in order that

 

provided

since

than

that

though

 

that until whether

unless while

when if

whenever

where

 

Exercises:

Now do the exercises related to Complex Sentence pattern in Unit 1 of Section II [Part II] above.

 

UNIT 3. PUNCTUATION *

* based on MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 2nd ed , 1984

1. Apostrophes (')

Apostrophes indicate contraction (do not = don't) and possessives (John's).

Apostrophes are also used to form the plurals (p's and q's; A's, B's. C's).

2. Colons (:)

A colon indicates that what follows will be an example, explanation, or elaboration of what has just been said.

He was in the midst of a dilemma about his career: he wanted to stay, but he preferred the job in Florida.

Colons are commonly used to introduce quotations (He said: «Where are you?») and to separate titles from subtitles (Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays).

3. Commas (,)

Commas are required: (a) between items in a series; (b) between coordinate adjectives; (c) before coordinating conjucnctions joining independent clauses; (d) around paren­thetical elements; and (e) after fairly long phrases or clauses preceding the main clauses of sentences.

(a) The experience demanded blood, sweat, and tears.

(b) We listened to an absorbing, frightening account of the event.

(c) Congress passed the bill by a wide margin, and the president signed it into law.

(d) The invention, the first in a series during that decade, completely changed people's lives.

(e) After carefully studying all the available historical docu­ments and personal writings, scholars could come to no defini­tive conclusion.

Commas are also used in dates (June 23, 1983), names (Cal Ripken, Jr.) and addresses (Rosemary Brady of 160 Can-oil Street, Brooklyn, New York).

3. Dashes (-)

The dash may be used: (a) around parenthetical elements that represent a break in the flow of thought; (b) around par­enthetical elements that require a number of internal commas; and (c) before a summarizing appositive.

(a) The rapid spread of the disease — the number of reported cases doubled each six months — helped create the sense of panic.

(b) Many twentieth-century American writers — Faulkner, Capote, Styron, Welty, to name only a few—come from the South.

(c) Computer chips, integrated circuits, bits, and bytes — these new terms baffled yet intrigued.

4. Exclamation marks (!)

Exclamation marks follow the words of an exclamation (i.e., an expression of sudden strong feeling).

«I'm hungry!» she exclaimed.

5. Hyphens (-)

Hyphens are used to connect numbers indicating a range (1-20) and also to form some types of compound words, par­ticularly compound words that precede the words they modify (a well-established policy, a first-rate study). Hyphens also join prefixes to capitalized words (post-Renaissance) and link pairs of coequal nouns (poet-priest, scholar-athlete).

6. Italics (and/or underlining)

Some titles are italicized (underlined in typing), as are let­ters, words, or phrases cited as linguistic examples, words re­ferred to as words,* and foreign words in an English text. Ital­ics are sometimes used for emphasis (I never said that).

* The word Heartfelt is composed by joining heart and felt.

7. Parentheses ()

Parentheses enclose parenthetical remarks that break too sharply with the surrounding text to be enclosed in commas. Parentheses sometimes dictate a greater separation than dashes would, but often either set of marks is acceptable, the choice depending on the other punctuation required in the context.

8. Periods (.)

Periods end declarative sentences.

9. Quotation marks (« »)

Quotation marks should enclose quoted material, certain titles and words or phrases purposely misused or used in an ironic or other special sense (e.g., Their «benefactor» was ulti­mately responsible for their downfall).

10. Semicolons (;)

Semicolons are used: (a) between items in a series when some of the items require internal commas; (b) between closely related independent clauses not joined by coordinating con­junctions; and (c) before coordinating conjunctions linking independent clauses that require a number of internal com­mas.

(a) In one day the indefatigable candidate campaigned in Vail, Colorado; Columbus, Ohio; Nashville, Tennessee; and Teaneck, New Jersey.

(b) On the one hand, demand is steadily decreasing; on the other, production keeps inexplicably increasing.

(c) The overture begins with a brooding, mournful passage in the strings and woodwinds, one of the composer's most passionate statements; but the piece concludes with a burst of lively, spirited, almost comic music in the brass and per­cussion.

11. Square brackets ([])

Square brackets are used: (a) for a parenthesis within a pa­renthesis where necessary to avoid two pairs of parentheses;

(b) to enclose interpolations in quotations; and (c) to indi­cate missing or unverified data in documentation.

(a) (The quote can be found in chapter 6 [page 5] of the text).

(b) Johnson quotes Jones as saying that «he never [gives] anyone a chance».

 

UNIT 4. THE CONJUNCTIONS OR CONNECTORS OF ENGLISH

(from «Let's write English» by Wishon and Burks)

Like the preposition, the English conjunction or connector is a small but highly important word - a pair of words in the case of the correlative conjunctions - that establishes meaning­ful relationship between the parts of the English sentence. These parts may be independent clauses with which similar clauses are connected by coordinating conjunctions, or they may be clauses that express some limiting qualification of the indepen­dent clause that make them subordinate to it. The nature of this relationship is expressed in the meaning of the word or words used as connectors. A number of adverbs, called con­junctive adverbs or relative adverbs, are also used as connec­tors with this same coordinating or subordinating function.

The following list of connectors is extensive, but there are a number of words included that would not normally be used except in the case of quite specialized writing, as, for example, in legal text, or in writing that is imitative of an older style. Hence a standard English dictionary will be the guide as to the various differences in meaning.

The relative pronouns who, which, what, that and their variant forms also are used as subordinating connectors of noun clauses.

1. COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS

 

and        else        or          yet

but         nor        still

2. CONJUNCTIVE ADVERBS USED AS COORDINAT­ING CONJUNCTIONS

also

besides consequently

for

furthermore hence

 

henceforth however likewise moreover nevertheless notwithstanding

 

now

otherwise

so

then

thence

thenceforth

 

therefore

thus

yet

 

 

    3. CORRELATIVE CONJUNCTIONS

although-nevertheless

although-still

although-yet

as-as

as-so

as-therefore

both-and

either-or

if-then

 

neither- nor

nor-nor

not-nor

not only-but also

not only-but even

since-therefore

so-as

so-that

such-as

 

such-that

though-nevertheless

though-still

though-yet

when-then

where-there

whether-or

whereas-therefore

 

 

4. SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS

althougl

ere

forasmuch

if

lest

 

 

provided

save

than though unless

 

whereas

whereat whereby wherein whereinto

 

 

 

whereof

wherewith

whether

 

        5. CONJUNCTIVE ADVERBS

 

USED AS SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS

 

after

as

because before

how

 

 

 

since

till

until

when whence

 

whenever where wherefore wherever while

 

 

 

whither

why

 

UNIT 5. THE PREPOSITIONS OF ENGLISN

(from «Let's Write English» by Wishon and Burks)

Prepositions are the connecting links between the words and phrases of a sentence which they join together in various special relationships.

For convenience of reference the lists that follow are di­vided in four groups: (1) the simple preposition; (2) the com­pound prepositions, so-called because they are combinations of two or more older forms now no longer used; (3) the parti­cipial prepositions, so-called because they have the form of a present participle in (-ing), but have the function and use of the preposition; (4) the phrasal prepositions, so-called because they are word-groups that serve as and have the function of a single preposition in the sentence structure. This last group qualifies and often makes more precise the meaning intended by the writer where one of the single-word prepositions does not always clearly or fully express the relationship intended. You will notice in most of these phrasal prepositions that one and often two simple or compound prepositions appear in the word-group which makes up the phrasal preposition.

Note that certain of the words listed below are used with much less fequency than others or that they have a specialized meaning for which reference to an English language dictionary is recommended.

1. SIMPLE PREPOSITIONS

at

but

by

down

ere

for

 

Forth

From

In

Like

Near

Of

 

off

on

out

over

per

save

 

Through

Till

To

Up

Via

With

 

2. COMPOUND PREPOSITIONS

abaft

aboard

about

above

across

adown

after

against

aloft

along

amid

 

 

Amidst

Among

Anent

Around

Aslant

Athwart

Before

Behind

Below

Beneath

Beside

 

 

besides

between

betwixt

beyond

despite

except

inside

into

onto

opposite

outside

 

 

since

throughout

toward(s)

under

underneath

unlike

until

unto

upon

withal

within

without

 

 

3. PARTICIPIAL PREPOSITIONS

Barring bating concerning

 

considering during

excepting

 

Notwithstanding

past

pending

 

regarding

respecting

saving

touching

 


4. PHRASAL PREPOSITIONS

abreast of

abreast with

according to

agreebly to

ahead of

alongside of

antecedent to

anterior to

apart from

apropos of

as against

as between

as compared with

as distinct from

as distinguished from

as far as

as far back as

as for

as opposed to

as to

as touching

aside from

as the cost of

at the hands of

at the instance of

at the peril of

at the point of

at the risk of

back of

because of

beyond the reach of

by dint of

 

for fear of

for lack of

for the benefit of

for the ends of

for the purpose of

for the sake of

for want of

from above

from among

from behind

from below

from beneath

from between

from beyond

from in front of

from lack of

from off

from out

from out of

from over

from under

hand in hand with

in opposition to

in order that

in place of

in point of

in preference to

in process of

in proportion to

in pursuit of

in quest of

in re (concerning)

in recognition of

in reference to

in regard to

in relation to

in respect to

in respect of

in reply to

in return for

in search of

insofar as

inspite of

in stead of

    in according with               in support of

in addition to

in advance of

in agreement with

inasmuch as

in back of

in behalf of

in the interest of

in between

in care of

 

in that

in the case of

in the event of

in the matter of

in the middle of

in the midst of

in the name of

in the presence of

in the room of

 

 

by (the) help of

by means of

by order of

by reason of

by the aid of

by virtue of

by way of

care of

concurrently with

conditionally on

comformably to

contraty to

counter to

differently from

down to

due to

east of

eastward from

exclusive of

face to face with

farther than

for example

on the point of

on the pretense of

on the score of

on the side of

on the strength of

on (the) top of

opposite to

out of

out of regard for

out of respect for

over against

over and above

owing to

preferably to

preliminary to

preparatory to

previous to

previously to

 

in case of

in common with

in company with

in comparison with

in comparison to

in compliance with

in conflict with

in conformity with

in consequence of

in consideration of

in contrast with

in contrast to

in course of

in default of

in defiance of

in disregard of

in (the) face of

in favour of

in front of

in fulfilment of

in lieu of

in obedience to

prior to

pursuant to

regardless of

relative to

short of

side by side with

so far as

so far from

south of

southward from

subject to

subsequent to

subsequently to

suitably to

thanks to

through lack of

to and fro

to the order of

 

in the place of

in the teeth of

in the way of

in taken if

in under (colloquial)

in view of

inclusive of

inconsistently with

independently of

inside of

irrespective of

next door to

next to

north of

northward from

on account of

on behalf of

on board (of)

on pain of

on the face of

on the occasion of

on the part of

under cover of

under pain of

up against

up and down

west of

westward from

with a view to

with an eye to

with reference to

with respect to

with regard to

with the exception of

with the intention of

with the object of

with the purpose of

with the view of

within reach of

with regard to

 


UNIT 6. COMMON CUES FOR THE READER

(Devices That Further Coherence)

CUES THAT LEAD THE READER FORWARD

То show addition:

                                       To show time:

To show time:

Again                                  Moreover                             At length                        Later

And                                     Nor                                       Immediately                  Previously

An  And then                             Too                                       thereafter                       Formerly

Besides                                Next                                     Soon                              First

Equally important               First                                      After a few hours          second,etc.

Finally                                second,etc.                            Afterwards                     Next, etc.

Further                                Lastly                                    Finally                           And then

Furthermore                        What’s more                         Then

CUES THAT MAKE THE READER STOP AND COMPARE

But

Notwithstanding

Although

Yet

On the other hand,

Alhtough this is true,

And yet

On the contrary,

While this is true,

However

After all,

Conversely

Still

For all that,

Simultaneously

Nevertheless,

In contrast,

Meanwhile

Nonetheless,

At the same time,

In the meantime,

 

 CUES THAT DEVELOP AND SUMMARIZE

 

To give examples:

To emphasize:

To repeat:

For instance,

Obviously,

In brief,

For example,

In fact

In short,

To demonstrate,

As a matter of fact,

As I have said,

To illustrate,

Indeed,

As I have noted,

As a illustration,

In any case,

In other words,

 

In any event,

 

 

That is,

 

 

 

To introduce conclusions:

To summarize:

Hence,

In brief,

Therefore,

On the whole,

Accordingly,

Summing up,

Consequently,

To conclude,

Thus,

In conclusion.

As a result,

 


 PART III

SHORT TEXTS

 

ANNUAL REPORT ON SPACESHIP EARTH

Passengers of Earth:

1. As you know, we are hurtling through space at about 107,000 km/hr on a fixed course. Although we can never re­turn to home base to take on new supplies, the ship has a marvelous and intricate life-support system.The system uses

 5  solar energy to recycle the chemicals needed to provide a rea­sonable number of us with adequate water,

     air and food.

2. Let me briefly summarize the state of our passengers and our life-support system. There are about 4         billion of us on board, with more than 150 nations occupying various sections

10 of the craft. About 25% of you have inherited the good-toluxurious quarters in the tourist and first-class    sections, and you have used approximately 80% of all resources available this past year. In fact, most of the

15 North Americans have the more lavish quarters. Even though they represent only about 5% of this year’s resources.

3. I am sad to say that things not have really improved for the 75% of our passengers travelling in the hold. Over one-third of you are suffering from hunger, malnutrition, or both,

20 and three-quarters of you do not have adequate water or shel­ter. These numbers will certainly rise as your soaring popula­tion wipes out any gains in food supply and economic devel­opment.

25                4. However, the overpopulation of the hold in relation to available food is only part of the problem. There is a second type of overpopulation that is even more serious because it threatens our entire life-support system. This type is occurring in the tourist and first-class sections. These sections are overpopulated in

30 relation to the level of resource consumption and the resultant pollution of our environment. For example, the average North American has about 25 to 50 times as much impact on our life-support system as each

35 passenger travelling in the hold, because the North American consumes 25 to 50 times as much of our resources and causes 25 to 50 times as much pollution. In this sense, then, the North American sec­tion is the most overpopulated one on the ship.

5. In addition to these matters, I am concerned at the lack of cooperation and the continued fighting

40 among some groups, which can destroy many, if not all, of us. Only about 10% of you are American and Russian, but your powerful weapons and your unceasing threats to build even more destructive ones must concern each of us.

6. Passengers of Earth: we are now entering the early stages of our first major spaceship crisis — an

45 interlocking crisis of overpopulation, pollution, resource depletion, and the danger of mass destruction by               intergroup warfare. Our most thoughful experts agree that the situation is serious, but certainly not hopeless. On the contrary, they feel that it is well within man's ability to learn how to control our population growth, 

50 pollution and resource consumption, and to learn how to live to­gether in cooperation and peace. But we have only about 30 to 50 years to deal with these matters, and we must begin now.

 

from: Time magazine

«WHAT REALLY MATTERED»

by Otto Friedrich

A. Any man who gets to be managing editor of The New York Times can safely be described as a man   blessed with selfconfidence. E. Clifton Daniel, now 75, demonstrated that quality anew last week when he

5  ventured to name the ten most important headlines of the 20th century in connection with an international project called Chronicle of the 20th Century, for which Daniel served as an editor, and which undertakes to tell the history of the era in headlines and quasi* news stories. Daniel's top ten:

*quasi — resembling, or seeming, but not actually


10 1. MAN'S FIRST FLIGHT IN HEAVIER-THAN-AIR MACHINE (Dec. 17, 1903)

2. THE GREAT POWERS GO TO WAR IN EUROPE (Aug. 1, 1914)

15 3. THE BOLSHEVIC REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA  (Nov. 7, 1917)

     4. LINDBERGH FLIES THE ATLANTIC ALONE (May 21, 1927)

5.HITLER BECOMES CHANCELLOR OF GER­MANY (Jan. 30, 1933)    

20 6. ROOSEVELT IS INAUGURATED AS PRESIDENT

(March 4, 1933)

7. SCIENTISTS SPLIT THE ATOM, RELEASING

INCREDIBLE POWER

(Jan. 28, 1939)    

25 8. THE NIGHTMARE AGAIN - WAR IN EUROPE

(Sept. 1, 1939)

9. SURPRISE JAPANESE BOMBING OF PEARL HARBOR (Dec.7,1941)

10. MEN LAND ON MOON (July 20, 1969)

30   В. It is certainly a curious list, as perhaps any such list inevitably would be.... Even on its own terms Daniel's list pro­vokes challenges. How it is possible in evaluatin the political turmoils of this century to omit the Chinese Communist revo­lution, which is not only the major event in the lives of one- third of the earth's

35 inhabitants, but also the first such revolu­tion among the world's non-white peoples? By  contrast, how could any list of the century's greatest events include Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic?

40 Heroic though it was, symbolic though it was, the flight was one of those hyped* events by which America of the 1920s celebrated its excitement at being itself.

*hyped — exaggerated (informal)

C. One of the most striking aspects of Daniel's list is that five of his ten choices deal more or less with World War II, which is understandable enough for a man who spent much of his professional life covering that cataclysm and its consequences.

45 Yet there is something relentlessly newspaperish about the implication that the great events of history mostly involve war and politics. World War II involved an awful carnage — at least 35 million dead — but far  more  people  than that  have been kept alive by the  invention of penicillin  and other  antibiotics,  not to

50 mention the pesticides that eradicated many epi­demic diseases, a scientific revolution that helped double the world's population just since 1950.

D. Which really has had more of an effect on American lives — a major military blow like Pearl Harbor

  55 or some subtler event like the spread of television? Pearl Harbor or the auto­mobile? Pearl Harbor or the computer? Pearl Harbor or the building of the welfare state? Pearl Harbor or the rise and fall of cheap energy? Pearl Harbor or the birth of the birth control pill?

60     E. These are all slow-moving developments, of course, and probably no single headline ever announced any one of them. Indeed, even political news is often hard to judge all at once...

     F. As time passes all politicians (and generals) come to seem less important; what lasts is art. «Literature», said Ezra Pound, «is news that stays news.» Many Americans can re­member that Calvin

65 Coolidge was the inconsequential Presi­dent when Scott Fitzgerald published «The Great Gatsby», but as we look back, the political powers keep fading, while the names of artists like Fitzgerald and his friend Hemingway become

70 familiar household words.

    G. But in the cultural history, just as in political history, we may know very little of what will eventually turn out to be important.... For all we know, the greatest artists and thinkers, too, remain almost completely

75 unknown, maybe only temporarily living in poverty and obscurity like Bela Bartok and Vladimir Nabokov in the 1940s, or else already long dead.

         H. It is interesting that Daniel's list includes only one event of the past 42 years, a period in which much   has happened but remains mysterious. Journalism (and history too) is what lives in that all too brief gap

80 between the not yet known and the already forgotten.

TIME magazine, October 12, 1987

Exercise:

1. List all the references to specific people, concepts or events that the writer assumes that the reader is familiar with (apart from those in Daniel's list).

а.

b.

с.

d.

е.

f.

g.

 

h.

i.

j.

k.

1.

m.

 

 

With which of the above are you actually «familiar»?

2. What is the topic of paragraph F (11.63-70)?

3. Why does the writer begin para. G with «But»? (1.71)

4. In general, what criticisms does the writer make of Daniel's list?

a) in para. В                     с) in paras. D, Е, F

b) in para. С                     d) in paras. Е, С

From:

«WRITING OF WOMEN»

by Phyllis Rose

The female style I was discovering and defining for myself seemed in many ways more attractive than the masculine style which aimed for and so often led to achievement. Women seemed more responsive, more expressive, more flexible, more considerate, more iconoclastic, and more irreverent than men. But were these traits innately, inevitably, biollogically a part of women's nature? Or were they characteristic of any group of people privileged in some way but excluded from power? In time, I came to think that much of

10 what I valued as female nature was not nature at all but a style created by cultural circumstances and historical experience. I thought this style was valuable. If it prevailed, the world might be a better place. On the other hand, it seemed unlikely to prevail. As women moved into positions of power on an equal basis

15 with men they would probably lose those lovable traits which were the prod­uct of powerlessness. Did that mean that woman should re­nounce power in order to retain__________?

Exercise:

1. Provide a suitable ending for the last sentence in the light of the point the writer is trying to make in this passage.

2a. Consider the connotations of the six items in the list of female traits (11.4-5). For each item («responsive», «expres­sive», etc.) decide whether it has a positive, negative, or am­biguous (more than one) connotation.

b. Does the order in which the traits are listed seem to have some significance?

3. The writer thinks that female traits are      A. inborn

B. acquired

(Choose (A) or (В) — and support your answer. You may paraphrase some part of the text, but do not quote directly.)

4. Under what condition might the world «be a better place» (11.12)?

5. Does the writer believe that condition (see question 4) can be met? Answer Yes or No — and support your answer. (You may paraphrase the text, but do not quote directly.)

 

«TO BE A WOMAN AND A SCHOLAR»

On a Saturday morning in June exactly three hundred years ago this year, the first woman in the world to receive a doctoral degree mounted a pulpit in the cathedral of Padua to be examined in Aristotelian

5        dialectics. Her name was Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia. She was thirty-two years old, single, daughter of

     one of the wealthiest families in Venice. Precociously brilliant, she had begun to study Aristotle at the age

     of seven. Her father had backed her studies and supplied the best of tutors; by the time she enrolled in the

10 University of Padua, she knew not only Latin and Greek, French, English and Spanish, but also Hebrew, and   Arabic, and Chaldaic.

What was it like to be a gifted woman, an Elena Comaro, three hundred years ago? What happened to a

15    bright woman in the past who wanted to study another culture, examine the roots of a language, master the

     intricacies of higher mathemat­ics, write a book or prevent or cure a terrible disease?

To begin with, for a woman to acquire anything that amounted to real learning, she needed four basics.

20    She needed to survive. In the seventeenth century women's life expectancy had risen only to thirty-two; not until 1750 did it begin to rise appreciably and reach, in mid-nineteenth century, age forty-two. A woman

 ambitious for learning would do well to choose a life of celibacy, not only to avoid the hazards of childbirth

25 but because there was no room for a scholar's life within the confines of marriage and childbearing. Elena

     Comaro had taken a vow of chastity at the age of eleven, turned down proposals of marriage to become an

     oblate of the Benedict Order. *)

*«an oblate of the Benedict Order» = a person in the service of a (Benedictine) Roman Catholic monastery.

 

30        Secondly, to aspire to learning a woman needed basic literacy; she had to be one of the fortunate few who learned at least to read and write. Although studies of literacy in earlier centuries are still very incomplete and comparative data on men's and women's literacy are meager, it appears from one such study

35    that before 1650 a bare 10% of women in the city of London could sign their names. What is most striking about this particular study is that men are divided by occupation — with clergy and the professions at the top (100% literate) and male laborers at the bottom of scale (about 15% literate); women as a group fell

40    below even the unskilled male laborers in their literacy rate. By about 1700 half the women in London could sign their own names; in the provinces woman's literacy re­mained much lower.

The third fundamental a woman needed if she aspired to learning was, of course, an economic base. It

45    was best to be born, like Elena Comaro, to a family of wealth who owned a well-stoc ked library and' could afford private tutors. For girls of poor families the chance of learning the bare minimum of reading and writing was small. Even such endowed charity schools as Christ's Hospital in London were attended mostly

50  by boys; poor girls in charity schools were apt to have their literacy skills slighted in favor of catechism,**)    needlework,  knitting, and lacemaking in preparation for a life of domestic service.

      **«catechism»— a book containing a summary of the principles of the Christian religion, on an elementary level.

 

55        The fourth fundamental a woman scholar needed was simply very tough skin, for she was a deviant in a society where the learned woman, far from being valued,was likely to hear her­self preached against in the pulpit and made fun of on the public stage. Elena Cornaro was fortunate to have been born in Italy where

60     an array of learned women had flourished during the Renaissance and where the woman scholar seems to have found a more hospitable ambiance that in the northern coun­tries. In eighteenth-century England the gifted writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, writing in 1753 about proposed plans for a little granddaughter's

65    education, admonished her daughter with some bitterness to «conceal whatever learning (the child) attains, with as much solicitude as she would hide crookedness or lameness».

And yet, despite all the hurdles, some bright women did manage to make a mark as scholars and writers.

70 Sometimes girls listened in on their brothers lessons. A fortunate few, like Elena Cornaro, had parents willing and able to educate daugh­ters equally with sons. But by far the largest number of women scholars in the past were self-educated. Through sheer intel­lectual curiosity, self-discipline, often grinding hard

75 work, they taught themselves whatever they wanted to know. Such self teaching may be the only truly joyous form of learning. Yet it has its drawbacks: it may also be haphazard and superficial. Without access to laboratory, lecture, and dissecting table, it was all but impossible for women to train themselves in

80  higher mathematics, in science, in anatomy, for instance.

So if one asks what it was like to be a gifted woman, to aspire to learning at the time of Elena Cornaro,  the answer must be that it was a difficult and demanding choice, requiring not merely intellectual gifts but

85  extraordinary physical and mental stamina, and only a rare few women succeeded in becom­ing contributing scholars and writers. All the usual scholarly careers were closed to women, so that even for women who succeeded in educating themselves to the level of their male colleagues, the opportunities to support

90  themselves were meager.

After Elena Cornaro's death a half a century passed before a second woman, again Italian, was awarded a doctorate at the University of Bologna. Not until 150 years later did American universities admit women

95 for degrees and two centuries passed 95 before Oxford and Cambridge conferred degrees on women.

Exercise:

If this essay were read aloud before an audience that had no copy of it in front of them, it would still be easy to follow the writer's line of argument.

1. What features of the text make it easier to comprehend than the average written text?

2. What sort of audience does this text seem to have been written for? On what basis can you make this inference?

From:

«FILTERS AGAINST FOLLY»

by Garrett Hardin

A civilization is defined by the dreams it renounces. When­ever there is a mismatch of supply and demand there are two ways of dealing with the situation in words: we can speak of either a shortage of

5 supply or a longage of demand. The alternatives are, in logic, equally valid. But for a long time our civilization has repressed the thought of longages of demand. The suppression may have been for good practical reasons, but all acts of suppression end up by stunting the mind. A basic insight of ecology is that

10 there are real 10 limits to the world (though we sometimes make mistakes in defining them). The recognition of limits makes possible the development of accu­rate methods of accounting, without which no honest descrip­tion of the world is possible. Historically, the belief in infinite supplies has greatly stimulated

15 innovation. As we approach the limits this belief becomes less fruitful. Finally, it becomes dan­gerous. When our civilization renounces the dream of infinite supplies it will move into a new and saner mode.

Exercise:

1. «A civilization is defined by the dreams it renounces.» (1.1)

a.       What dream(s), if any, has our civilization renounced?

     ________________________________________________________________

b.      What dream(s), if any, does the writer think our civiliza­tion should renounce?

     ________________________________________________________________

2. a.»But ... demand» (11. 5-6) the implication here is that we prefer talking about ___________, rather than con­sidering the problem of________________.

b. The word _____________ (in 1.6) is the equiva­lent of the word «suppression» in 1.7. The renunciation of the dream of infinite supplies (11.16— 17) is the equivalent of the recognition of___________

                                                                                                                               (one word)

 

3. a. «though ... them» (11. 10 ). Here Hardin tells us that we sometimes make the mistake of defining these limits too nar­rowly, and then, having discovered our error, we make the further mistake of exaggerating in the opposite direction: i. e., we assume there are ________ limits.

3. b. «As we approach the limits this belief becomes less fruitful.» (1. 14-15).

i. The «limits» of what?______________________________________________

ii. To become .... fruitful (1. 15) is the equivalent of which phrase in the preceding sentence? (i e., in 1. 14)

4. It is impossible to give an «honest description of the world»

(1. 12) without ________________________

 

CHIMPS EAT CHIMPS

           1. It is hard for any naturalist to write about animals he or she has studied in depth without falling into the trap of anthro­pomorphism. It is so easy to find oneself attributing humanoid characteristics and

5        emotions to another species that few natu-5 ralists have been able to separate themselves from this habit. This objective observation and avoidance of pitfalls becomes even more difficult when one is dealing with a species that physically resembles man, hat uses vocalizations and facial expressions that seem to reflect our

10    own and that often exhibits behaviour similar to that of its human relatives. It is for this reason that Jane Goodall is to be highly complimented.

2. It has been 27 years since this Englishwoman, accompa­nied by her intrepid mother and a cook took

15    off for the shores of Lake Tanganyika in East Africa and set up her first station for the study of wild chimpanzees. Here, in this compendious volume, Goodall, who earlier gave us her exciting book In the Shadow of Man, now reports at length on the first quarter-century of her work with the wild apes of the Gombe Nature Reserve.

20       3. For the amateur enthusiast there is a wealth of material about feeding, socialization, breeding habits and territorial struggles including aggressive encounters between chimps and social dependencies within the chimpanzee hierarchy. There are detailed lists of food showing what appears to be an order of

25    preferences and more than 250 photographs, some in colour, showing the variety of features that set one chimp off from another.

4.The 77 chimps known by name and studied are all pre­sented in individual portraits, most of them by

30    H.Van Lawick. There are also breeding and grooming one another.

5.In her earlier work, Goodall debunked the popular myth that chimpanzees are vegetarians, showing them to be oppor­tunistic omnivores that on occasion even hunt their food. Now, in this later work, the

35    longest field observation ever undertaken  of any species, she topples other cherished beliefs. Observing the animals of Gombe, Goodall and her co-workers show proof of cannibalism in the chimpanzee tribe as demonstrated by Passion and Pom, a mother and daughter, who systematically prey on the young of other

40    chimpanzees. While it has been well established that the chimps do steal infant baboons from their mothers and eat them, this is the first documented inci­dent of chimps eating chimps.

6. The sentimentalist's idyll of nature is shattered as Goodall lists in exact detail the injuries, illnesses

45    and deaths of chimps in the reserve over 25 years and reports just how many of these are the result of

      aggressive actions on the part of other chimps.

       7. For the professional naturalist there are intricate graphs covering hundreds, even thousands of hours

50 of observation show­ing just how much time chimps in different categories spend with one another and in what circumstances and familiar rela­tionships. She shows that the strongest social bonds are be­tween mother and daughter and between siblings, although other, elective bondings are sometimes almost as strong.

55      8. Another documented observation is the natural fastidiousness of chimps that clean themselves with leaves after be­coming soiled. However, just as in our own species, individual differences exist between those who are finicky and those who are slobs. Similar differences were observed in willingness to eat soiled food

60 or copulate with a befouled female. Some males didn't care, some cleaned up the messy lady before copulating and some rejected her advances.

       9. In addition to her own researches, Goodall gives a clear account of what research laboratories and

65 adoptive humans have learned about the chimpanzee. Since the late 1960s, when  it was realized that even if

     chimps could not actually talk they might be able to learn the sign language of the deaf and mute, great

     strides have been made in understanding the mentality of these, our relatives.

70     10. Yerkish, the machine language of Yerkes laboratories, has also contributed a vast amount of   information that helps understand chimpanzee thought processes. Young chimps, taught this manner of  communication, are quite adept at ex­pressing their feelings, telling stories of what happened to them and

75    even forming certain concepts. When first seeing a swan one young chip made the signs for «water» and «bird». An­other termed watermelon «candy-drink», while still another called a sharply-flavoured radish «hunt-cry-food».

           11. There is also evidence that the chimpanzee can invent its own signs. Lucy, a hand-raised chimp

80 wanted to be put on  a leash and walked. Not having the word for leash she hooked her index finger into the ring of her collar and went to the door. Another, not knowing the word for bib traced its outline on her chest. It later turned out that this was the official sign for a bib and the one her teacher had shown her was incorrect.

From: Jane Goodall, Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior, 1987.


SIGNS IN THE WILDERNESS

 

Once admired for her skill with sign language, Lucy,

a laboratory-bred chimp, must now adapt

to the jungle — or die

by Eugene Linden

1)   Though her appearance and behavior make her all but indistinguishable from other wild chimps,  Lucy was born twenty years ago in the United States, which puts her roughly halfway through the normal

5      lifespan for chimps. Until she was eleven, she was raised as part of a human family in an affluent neigh­borhood in Norman, Oklahoma. She did not meet another chimp until she was nine. Twelve years ago Lucy achieved some celebrity for her role in experiments exploring the use of American Sign Language by

10  chimpanzees. But since 1977 she has been weaned gradually from everything she learned about human civilizatin during the first part of her life and has been taught the ways of wild chimpanzees. Lucy is the only chimp bom and reared in America ever to have been reintroduced to the wild.

15               2) Some thirty chimps participated in the language experi­ments of the 1970s. In the years since, these chimps have ful­filled various destinies. Washoe, the original sign-languageusing chimp, is still with

20  Dr.Roger Fouts, who has worked with her since the late 1960s, when he was a graduate student. Two other chimps, named Nim Chimpsky and Ally, became the center of a cause celebre when they were sold for medical research. Some veterans of these experiments were used in batch— testing of hepatitis vaccines, and

25  the remainder live out their days in other laboratories, game parks, and zoos. All of the chimps, however are imperiled by a growing surplus of adult chimps in the United States, which increases pressures to use these animals in «terminal» research.

3)Before her trip to the wild, at the age of eleven, Lucy's experience of the jungle was confined to

30   pictures in magazines that she would leaf through at her house in Norman, Okla­homa. At the age of two days Lucy was given to Maurice and Jane Temerlin to raise. Maurice Temerlin is a psychologist, and Lucy was to be the subject of an experiment to determine how a chimp raised in an «enriched» human

35  environment would develop. Later, because pioneering studies showed that chim­panzees had the capacity to learn and communicate with hu­man beings through the sign language of the deaf, the Temeriins hoped they might actually have two-way communication with Lucy. It's one thing to tell an animal to get your slippers

40   and have it respond appropriately; it's quite another to have the animal use a human language to tell you that it has hurt its knee or that it is feeling sad.

4)   The language experiments with apes have provoked a great deal of controversy over the years.

45  Critics have raised doubts about whether the chimps who used sign language were actually demonstrating an understanding of the language or were in fact dumbly responding to cues given by human beings in the hope of getting some reward. Proponents of this experi­mentation deflect the criticisms on several grounds.

50   Twenty years after Washoe first made the sign more, the debate is still unresolved and most of the participants in it are wearied, if not embittered. Moreover, science continues to lack a serviceable definition of language against which to judge these experiments: whether or not what the apes are doing constitutes

55    «language» still seems to be in the eye of the beholder.

5)   Dr. Roger Pouts, a comparative psychologist affiliated with the University of Oklahoma, was in charge of Lucy's lan­guage training, which began when she was five years old. Al­though this was a

60   relatively late start, Lucy acquired about 130 words in the course of the various experiments. Fouts ran to study her language use. He was less interested in teaching Lucy an enormous vocabulary than he was in determining the ways she used the signs he taught her. For instance, in one landmark study he asked Lucy to

65    describe objects for which she had no 65 words. Presented with a radish, Lucy described the object as a «cry hurt food.» A watermelon was a «drink fruit.»

6)      As a member of an upper-middle-class household, Lucy had lots of toys and a rich array of games

70    and people to amuse herself with. She would pretend to swallow objects while looking in a mirror, and then sign swallow to herself as she did so. She loved to play chase-and-tickle games. Indeed, one of her most frequent statements was «Roger tickle Lucy.» One day, while visiting, I suggested that Roger say «Lucy

75    tickle Roger», to see how she would respond. After looking at him incredulously once, and correcting him once, Lucy grasped the differ­ence and rushed to tickle Roger.

7)      When Lucy was nine, the family acquired an infant chimp named Marianne as a companion for her.

80    The next year they hired Janis Carter to help take care of both chimps. Carter was 80 then twenty-six. The year before, she had graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in psychology.

She had come to the University of Oklahoma to help with the signlanguage studies, and to work with primates.

85           8) By the time Lucy was eleven, the Temerlins had decided that they could not keep either chimp much longer. However, although the Temerlins felt that they could no longer keep Lucy, neither could they consign her to a life in a zoo or a lab. Through a visiting primatologist the Temerlins heard of rehabilita-

90    tion work being done in Senegal and The Gambia by Stella Brewer, the daughter of Eddie Brewer, a white ex-colonial who is the direc­tor of wildlife in The Gambia. The Brewers had been trying with uncertain results to re-introduce captive chimps to the wild. Stella Brewer was at first unreceptive to the

95     idea of taking Lucy on. At eleven and a half, Lucy was full grown, and Stella had no prior experience with her that might have given her dominance over Lucy. Moreover, Lucy had no memories of the wild which might be tapped during rehabilitation. The idea of rehabilitation was not universally applauded in the

100United States. A number of scientists thought that to expose a sheltered chimp like Lucy to the hazards of  the wild was ill advised and perhaps cruel. Nevertheless, the Temerlins felt that even if the attempt failed, Lucy would have had the chance both to be free and to live life as a chimp, a possibility that would forever be out of reach should she be sent to a lab or a zoo.

105      9) Stella Brewer finally agreed to accept Lucy after Carter offered to stay on to ease the transition to life in Africa. The Temerlins, Carter, Lucy, and Marianne left for Africa in Sep­tember of 1977.

      10) Although Janis Carter originally became involved with chimps through Roger Fouts's sign-language

110 work, her present attitude toward signing is shaped by what she sees as her major chore, which is to break Lucy's ties to humans and reinforce her chimp-ness.

      11) For the first year and a half in Africa, Carter, Lucy, and Marianne lived at the Abuko Reserve, just

115 outside Banjul. Al­most from the time of their arrival it was clear that Lucy and Marianne were never going to be integrated into Stella Brewer's chimp group in Senegal. Lucy was visibly out of sorts, and this, in

120 combination with a lack of provision for Lucy's future, caused Carter to decide to stay on. At first Carter brought the wilds to Lucy, rather than Lucy to the wilds. The situation was not a happy one: Lucy spent her first eighteen months in Africa in a cage. «Basically, Lucy just hung on at Abuko,» Carter told me. «The

125 changes really happened for her once she moved to Baboon Island.» Marianne, who was less cosmopolitan than Lucy, adapted more readily to the natural environment.

     12) Lucy spent her time in a cage because everybody knew that if she got out of the cage, no one could

130 get her back into it. Although she could be intimidated by other chimps, she could not be intimidated by human beings. Once a man threat­ened her with a rake and Lucy simply took the rake and broke it. No one other than Carter could venture inside the cage to clean it, so when Carter was away Lucy would live in

135 absolute squalor. Carter recalled that Lucy was a pretty pathetic sight back then. She got painfully thin and lost most other hair.

     13) Lucy came to the island in May, 1979, and it was a year before she really started interacting with   other chimps. One casualty of this traumatic period was Lucy's functional use of sign language. Carter

140 realized that using sign language with Lucy set up a special bond between them that excluded the other chimps. Carter has said, «I don't see that using sign language has anything to do with being a wild chimp. The sign language was just too strong a tie. It meant that I was special over the others, and that Lucy

145 thought that we were a team. I'm not going to be with Lucy forever, and I wanted to know that she was  prepared for the day when I was gone.»

     14) Carter reported that Lucy still regularly uses more than twenty signs when she is around Carter. But Lucy must marvel that sign language, which everybody made such a fuss about when she was young, only rarely produces any response in Carter.

150    15) Lucy retains other legacies of her former life. Although she eats leaves and fruits as the other chimps do, she stead fastly refuses to hunt for arboreal ants or weaver ants. Nor does she trust herself to nests

155 built in the leafy parts of branches. Lucy prefers to settle herself in the crook of a sturdy branch, close to  the trunk of the tree.

     16) Carter and Eddie Brewer, the director of wildlife, have had an uneasy relationship over the years.They appear to have fundamentally different ideas about what type of program might best serve the

160 needs of the chimpanzees. Brewer does not worry about a future in which the chimps are partially dependent upon food drops. Carter, though, is perhaps unrealistic in her determination that her chimps should have a truly wild life. In this disagreement it is Brewer who has the power to enforce his ideas.

165    17) For one thing, Brewer keeps adding other formerly cap­tive chimps to the western end of the island.When I visited Baboon Island, it housed a total of twenty-two-far more than the carrying capacity of the island (which is roughly estimated to be seven chimps). In addition, a dam has been proposed for

170downstream. Its construction would spell the end of Baboon Island. Finally, pressures to use Baboon Island for other or additional purposes might become too powerful for the gov­ernment to resist.

175   18) Janis Carter feels these threats acutely, because any of  them would nullify the efforts of a major part of her life. She hates the idea that the chimps might end up in an elaborate zoo. She has long wanted to move the chimps to a more primi­tive refuge. But so far she has not found one, and the possibili­ties that remain become more limited with each passing year.

180   19) Although Lucy and eight other chimps in Carter's care live a life that is less restrained than that of any captive chimp, the sad probability is that these and other chimps even those now wild — will always be hostage to the whims of man. However, Carter still retains the faint hope that someday Lucy will be able

185 to vanish into the jungle so that neither Carter nor anyone else will know where she is.Then Lucy might be said to be free.

          Lucy has lived at the sufferance of the people around her, and her life to a degree reflects the ethos of

190 her time. She was initiated into the mysteries of that indefinable thing called language, which we use to separate ourselves from the rest of creation. But then her human guardians decided that she should be a chimp. She found herself stripped of her privileges and discouraged from using the system of communica-

195 tion that she had spent the better part of her youth learning. At different times in her life human beings have been parents, mentors, friends, jailers, rulers, judges, and gods. She now waits, per­haps wondering what she really is, and what our bizarre, moody species has in store for her.

From: The Atlantic Monthly, March 1986

 

MIGHTIER THAN THE PEN

 

A revised, and revised again, view of the word processor. by William Swanson

 

1)                  Five years ago the editors of this magazine asked me to let them set up a word processor in my office. «Learn to work the thing», they urged me, «then write an article about your experience.» I said no. I

5      said that I was scarcely able to deal with, much less master, a four-slot toaster. As far as writing devices go, I said, I had neither the desire nor the need to abandon my beloved Hermes 3000 manual typewriter. Send your word-processing machine off to one of your high-tech specialists, I commanded the editors, no doubt a

10  trifle disdainfully.

2)      Then, one evening at a friend's house, I sat down at the keyboard of his brand-new Kaypro computer and actually pro­cessed a couple dozen lines of words. I swiftly replaced a mid­dling verb with a muscular

15  one, effortlessly rearranged and streamlined the structure of a clunky sentence, neatly corrected a spelling error and tidied up my punctuation, and, finally, after all the revisions, called forth and produced, in only a matter of seconds, a lovely, letter-perfect «manuscript.»

           3) I have done my own work on a word processor for almost a year now. I am only too happy, when

20 asked,usually by a word processing colleague, to discuss this or that feature of my machine. To the more general question of how do I write, I respond perhaps a trifle disdainfully, «With an IBM PC, of course. Not that it should matter.»

25        4) To a more critical question I would have more difficulty responding. I could not tell you with absolute certainty, that the quality of my work is the better for my great technological leap forward. I think it is, I think it virtually has to be, but I wouldn't want to swear to it. My editors have been non commital on the

30  quality question, though they've been very generous in their praise of the neatness of my word-processed manuscripts.

 5) As writing tools go, the word processor is, quite honestly, a wonder. In the field of writing and

35 publishing, it has to be the most important technological breakthrough since Gutenberg began moving his type around. The magic of the word proces­sor lies not in this or that individual function, but in its overall enabling capability. Writers generally sit down while they work, and there is not a lot of heavy lifting — but

40 serious writing is nonetheless a wearying business. Simply put, the word processor reduces the drudgery of converting the writer's thoughts to words on paper. It allows him to get down — first on a screen, and only later, if and when he wishes, on paper — great quan­tities of words, with unprecedented speed and convenience.

45       6) This does not, unfortunately, make him a better writer, or insure his readers an unprecedented torrent of unforgettable prose. It may insure them only a torrent. Like any enabling technology, the word processor can result in wretched excess. Some skeptics go so far as to suggest that a word processor allows the words

50  to flow faster than the thoughts those words are supposed to represent. Here, for example, is the usually concise Russell Baker describing his personal «processing pro­cess» in The New York Times:

7)«It is so easy, not to mention so much fun — listen folks, I have just switched right here at the start

55   of this very paragraph you are reading — right there I switched from the old typewriter (talk about goose — quill pen days!) to my word processor, which is now clicking away so quietly and causing me so little effort

60  that I don't think I'll ever want to stop this sentence because — well, why should you want to stop a sentence when you're really well launched into the thing — the sentence, I mean — and it's so easy just to keep her rolling right along and never stop since, anyhow, once you do stop, you are going to have to start another sentence, right? — which means coming up with another idea».

65       8) But if the word processor can unleash a mindless (if sometimes hilarious) prolixity, it can also enable the writer to accomplish more in the time he is allowed, and, if he is so inclined, to be infinitely more

70  particular about his languge. It enables him, with an almost supernatural physical ease, to revise, revise, and revise the work in front of him — revision being, today as in Goethe's day, both the essence and the bane of the serious writer's trade.

8)      There are other claims made for the word processor that may or may not be borne out by fact. The

75  word processor, some of its boosters argue, actually enhances by virtue of its much discussed «user-friendliness,» the writer's motivation. The word processor, some of its champions insist, reduces the «ter­ror» of writing, since a blank CRT screen is, to some, less terrorizing than a blank sheet of foolscap I'm not.

80  convinced of all that. Regardless how friendly the tool, writing exacts no small amount of terror from a lot of us: And besides, the point is that the word processor gives the writer the chance not to make his work easier, but to make it better.

From: TWA Ambassador, February 1986

From: The New York Review of Books

 

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR SYNCHRONIZED INPUT SHAFT

 

by Noel Perrin

(A Review of The 1990 Chevrolet S-10 Owner's Manual and The 1990 Buick LeSabre Owner's Manual)

Two new books from the General Motors Corporation sug­gest that the tradition of owner's manuals supplied by car manufacturers is undergoing profound change. One book is confus­ing, hard to read, cheaply

5      produced on poor-quality paper — just what a manual ought to be. But the other looks good and reads better.  It often — no, usually — gives directions that can be followed by an ordinary untrained person. At a time when literacy is plunging and many college freshmen are having to be taught to write a simple

10  declarative sentence, any evidence of clarity in writing is cause for celebration. Furthermore, both G.M. manuals show a rudimentary sense of social responsibil­ity, which is almost as revolutionary a change as the use of clear prose. Considering that both would also easily make best­seller lists if bookstores handled them

15  (each has more than 100,000 copies in print), they deserve a review.

«1990 Chevrolet S-10 Owner's Manual» mostly upholds the old tradition. Its confusingly numbered pages (typical page number: 2D-6) attempt to cover not one but three different Chevrolet models: the Blazer

20 and two varieties of light truck.This makes for difficulties. Suppose you get a flat tire in your Blazer or your regular pickup or your extended-cab pickup. In each the jack is stored in a different place, so that it can require a thorough study of pages 3-9 through 3-12 just to find out where to look for it (and how to extract

25 it when found). By a piece of inspired bad planning, these four pages of instructions for find­ing your jack come after the directions for changing a tire. The owner, already sullen because of the flat, may be tempted to hurl the jack, when it finally is found, through the optional sliding rear window. That, of course, would

30 be a mistake. Windows are complicated enough in the manual already. If you own a Blazer, you waste your time when you read the instruc­tions for swingout windows — they are to be found only in the extended-cab truck. Roughly a third of the manual will be mere distraction for any given owner. That leaves two-thirds

35  that still applies. By no means will all of this be of much help to the average person, however. Suppose you have bought a Blazer and are intent on discover­ing how the four-wheel

40  drive system works. Here is part of what you will learn: «The system has a transfer case with synchronized input shaft, and a differential unit with central lock­ing cluch and connect/disconnect control.»

Or what if you glance at the section on operating the de­froster?'Your appalled eye will come on this:

45 «The windshield defrosting and defogging system provides visibility through designated areas of the windshield during inclement weather con­ditions.»

«The 1990 Buick Le Sabre Owner's Manual» is strikingly different. None of it applies only to light

50 trucks or only to some other kind of Buick. All of it is about the LeSabre. Better yet, virtually all of it is readable. Have to change a flat? «The equipment you'll need is in the trunk.» Ah, but suppose you've never touched a jack in your life, aren't even sure what one looks like. The manual is prepared. It expected that. It

55 con­tains 26 color photographs that sequentially picture the changing of a tire. (The first two are cameo shots of the jack and of the wheel wrench.) Each action shot is accompanied by simple directions. Typical direction: «Take off the nuts. Keep them near you.» A visiting Martian, if taught English and given the manual, could probably change a LeSabre tire.

60                The most surprising thing in either manual, though, is the acknowledgement that Buicks and Blazers do  not exist in a vacuum — that they move through the air of this planet and are quite capable of polluting it.

65   Both contain a piece of formal advice from General Motors: mix 10 percent ethanol with your gasoline, if you possibly can, because this will «contribute to cleaner air.»

But here, too, LeSabre is ahead. Both manuals also urge you not to pour your used motor oil down a

70 drain or dump it on the ground. The S-10 manual doesn't say why; it just says don't do it. But the brave, though anonymous, author of LeSabre gives a reason. «Used oil can be a real threat to the environ­ment», the manual forthrightly says.

When Buick manuals begin to express concern for the envi­ronment, can spring be far behind?

Exercise:

1. What makes the Buick manual better than the Chevrolet?

2. In what way/s are both better than previous manuals?

 

WHAT IS A JOURNALIST'S «FACT»?

by Claud Cockburn

To hear people talking about the facts you would think that they lay about like pieces of gold ore in the Yukon days waiting to be picked up — arduously, it is true, but still definitely and visibly — by strenuous

5  prospectors whose subsequent problem was only to get them to market.

Such a view is evidently and dangerously naive. There are no such facts.Or if there are.they are meaningless and entirely ineffective; they might, in fact, just as well not be lying about at all until the

10 prospector — (the journalist) — puts them into relation with other facts: presents them, in other words. Then they become as much a part of a pattern created by him as if he were writing a novel. In that sense all stories are written backwards — they are supposed to begin with the facts and develop from there, but in reality

15 they begin with a journalist's point of view, a conception, and it is the point of view from which the facts are subsequently written.

All this is difficult and even rather unwholesome to explain to the layman, because he gets the

20 impression that you are saying that truth does not matter and that you are publicly admitting what he long ago suspected, that journalism is a way of "cooking" the facts. Really cunning journalists, realizing this, and anxious to raise the status of journalism in the esteem of the general public, positively encourage the layman

25 in his mistaken views. They like him to have the picture of these nuggety facts lying about on maybe frozen ground, and a lot of noble and utterly unprejudiced journalists with no idea what­ever of what they are looking for scrabbling in the ironbound earth and presently bringing home the pure gold of Truth.

Exercise:

The above passage was written by a well-known journalist about the nature of a Journalist's work.

I (A) Cockburn tells us that people commonly believe that the facts that become part of a Journalist's article are like the pieces of _______that ______________(s) once found «lying about on maybe frozen ground» (1. 25) in the Yukon.

(B) This commonly held view is mistaken, according to Cockburn, because the Journalist's facts have no value in them­selves: they only become valuable when and if a good jour­nalist ________________

(C) In what sense are «all stories... written backwards»?? (12-13)

(D) What might give the layman the impression that Cockburn is «saying that truth does not matter and that [he is] publicly admitting . . . that journalism is a way of "cooking" the facts»?

(E) How do «really cunning journalists» (1.21) try to «raise the status of journalism in the esteem of the general public»? (11.22-23)

(F) According to Cockburn, what is the relationship be­tween «the pure gold of truth» (1.28) and the facts in a journalist's article?

II (A) Read Carr's «What is a Historical Fact?» in Part IV below. Compare Carr's view of the nature of a historical fact with Cockbum's view of the nature of a Journalist's fact. What do the two views have in common?

(B) Consider the various means by which each of these writ­ers manages to convey his message. Consider the following:

a. Does either writer use a serious scholary tone? How would you describe the tone that each uses?

b. Does either writer use orderly, reasoned arguments with logical proofs?

c. What figures of speech does Carr use to suggest that history «is written backwards» (in the same sense that Cockburn applies this idea to the stories of journalists)?

d. Does either writer manage to convince you of the truth of what he says? If your answer is "yes" try to decide why, if it is "no", try to explain why not.

 

From:

AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN NAISBITT,

IN «THE FUTURIST», AUGUST 1985

Question: Do you think young people are moving toward an individualistic lifestyle? If so, how do you account for the growing conservatism on college campuses and the large num­bers of students entering business schools?

5                    Answer: The trend is absolutely toward individualism. But going to business school is not conforming. It's where the ac­tion is. Last year we created 700,000 companies. We've never done that before. It is

10  fantastic. It's true that large numbers of students are studying business, but not a single one I talked to when I recently visited Harvard wanted to work for a large corporation.They all wanted to start in smaller companies or start their own business. Business is by far the most exciting sector. When we hear «students studying business» we have this thing in our head about all these big lumbering bureaucratic corporations.

15  Students aren't thinking about them at all. Those corporations are the old economy.

(Naisbitt is the author of a book called Megatrends. )

Exercise:

1. What does «individualism» mean to you?

2. What does «trend» mean?

3. In what sense does the first sentence in Naisbitt's reply seem paradoxical?

4. Do you think Naisbitt himself is aware of the paradox?

5. What do you think «It's where the action is» (11.6-7) means?

6. How is the above expression (see question 5) related to the idea of «conforming»?

7. If all students want to start in smaller companies, what might an individualist be tempted to do?

8. What does Naisbitt seem to mean by «individualism»?

9. If you look up the word «individualism» in a good En­glish-English dictionary, you will discover many different mean­ings, including:

i. the habit of independent thought or action

ii. the pursuit of individual rather than common or col­lective interests.

A. In which sepse is the Questioner using the word «indi­vidualistic»?

a. In which sense/s is Naisbitt using the word «individual­ism»?

 

CRIME AND POVERTY

by Edward I. Koch

EVER since Cain slew Abel, explanations for the dark side of human nature have been put forward. They have varied with the era, usually reflecting the philosophical bent of the time, and different eras will

5      sometimes have differing facets of the same explanation to explain away the evil in men's hearts. The 17th-century belief that people were said to be possessed by demons who forced them to deviate from socially acceptable behavior is a claim not unlike the psychiatric canons of our time that excuse liability for crime

10   by attributing deeds to uncontrollable «sociopathic» factors buried inside the personal­ity. A current belief has its roots from the end of the 18th century, when justification for criminal behavior was found in the economic relationships that existed then-and have always existed — among the classes in social and political

15   organization. The impact of Marxism in the 19th century, which held that the central force in human history is economic determin­ism, gave tremendous weight to the argument that much crime is committed and justified because of the inequality in the distribution of wealth.

20           I believe those who assert that individuals commit crime because of poverty have essentially a sentimental view of hu­man nature. To me, this is another way of saying that the criminal is the victim and

25  not an enemy of society. It re­sembles the argument that those who commit crime suffer from pathology that eliminates freedom of choice and free will from the makeup of such persons. In other words, responsibility and accountability for one's acts are not to be required. Poverty or sickness is the criminal agent, and the malefactor is merely the passive surrogate of these unfortunate conditions.

30    I think that average people read these claims with amaze­ment, if not astonishment. I know I do. They know, of course, with the weary resignation of those who are being condescended to by the elitists, that crime is traceable to the greed, cruelty, and selfishness of men and women who are not fundamentally

35 different now than in Cain's time. They know that, in the face of the changing claims for the wrong men have done through­out history, the only thing that hasn't changed is man himself and that the explanations for wrongdoing merely reflect the current problems of a particular society.

40   They also know that civilization has, through its social and, more importantly, moral institutions, shaped and refined be­havior so that social life is, on the whole, considerably less barbarous than it was in eras past. However, the instinct to pillage and victimize will always be there, in individual crimes committed by faceless man in dark places and by awful men in public places like the Hitlers and Stalins of our own time. To look for the causes of crime in some eternal condition, on the theory that elimination of the condition will eliminate crime, is illusory.

50       When I recently stated at a panel discussion of mayors of large American cities that there is no substantial correlation between unemployment and crime, a number of the mayors insisted that I was uninformed and flying in the face of an obvious reality. Putting aside the overwhelming evidence from theological, ethical,

55  and philosophical sources that locates crime in the heart of man and not in his stomach, I meant by the term «correlation» to show that there exists no persuasive ana­lytical study or data that established a nexus between crime and poverty. The key point for those who wish to fly in the face of common sense and

60  experience and insist that such a relationship exists is that there no no viable research study that effectively supports their position. Simply put,it can not be proven.The most definitive study to date, a five-volume report issued by the United States Department of Justice in 1981, analyzed juvenile crime from 1973 to1978.

65  The data came from the National Crime Survey, conducted by the Census Bureau. Sixty thousand households embracing 136,000 per­sons were interviewed periodically and asked to describe the age, sex, and race of those who committed crime against the households or members of the fami lies being studied.

70  The report found virtually no relationship nationwide between eco­nomic conditions and adult or juvenile crime, as measured by unemployment statistics, the consumer price index, and the gross national product. In

75  fact, in some instances, the survey demonstrated a negative, rather than positive, relationship between unemployment and crime.

While unemployment declined in 1977 and 1978, crime rates increased dramatically. When normal seasonal fluctua­tions in crime and economic indicators were taken into ac­count, the Justice Department

80 found that «none of the economic indices has any effect on the rate of offending.»

Little link

Similarly, the report concluded that «unemployment is un­related to the total rate of offending for the

85  sub-groups in question (juvenile, youthful, and adult male offenders for both blacks and whites).» The study also found little link between adult employment and juvenile offending. In short, changes in unemployment forjuveniles,blacks, whites,and other sub-groups were not sound predictors of changes in crime rates. A

90 1980 article in the widely respected Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology also questioned the relationship between econo mic indicators and crime rates. It concluded that «unemploy­ment may affect the crime rate, but even if it does, its general effect is too slight to be measured. Therefore, the proper infer­ence

95      is that the effect of unemployment on crime is minimal at 95 best.» The Vera Institute of Justice, in a review of the literature regarding employment and crime, found that, while much of the research cited claims to establish a link between employ­ment and crime, «empirical work ... suggests that the relation­ship

100 between unemployment and income variables and crime is not at all clear.»

Other studies have suggested that government intervention, in the form of employment programs, has had little or no effect on recidivism. An evaluation of the Court Employment Project in New York City

105 found that the program had no effect on the reciivism rate of the carefully selected felony defendants who participated. Similar projects in Texas and Georgia discovered no significant impact in either state on property related crimes by participants. Looking at such programs, Vera concluded that «there is no clear

110 cut evidence about the relation ship between employment and crime in a program context.»

In Crime and Public Policy, published in 1983, Harvard economist Richard B. Freeman concluded that «there is some difficulty in measuring the relationship between crime and unemployment,» and that

115 «various job experiments with individual crimes offer little optimism about the effect of job cre­ation on the behavior of persons already embarked on a career of crime.»

This brings me, finally, back to my initial point. With the common sense of our average citizens, we can

120 do something  about crime. It  is idle  to ask  whether employment programs,  diversion  schemes, counseling,rehabilitation theories, or the sub­stitution of psychiatrists for jailers will control crime.We, the public, know the answer. They will not, have not, and can not. Only punishment will reduce crime. A study

125 of juvenile offenders in Chicago cited in 1980 by Harvard criminologist James Q. Wilson found that those who were committed to the most re­strictive environment were least likely to be arrested upon re­lease.

130      The man in the street will tell you, if you ask him, that character, not economic status, is destiny. He will also tell you how to deal effectively and justly with crime — hold people to account and, if they are guilty, punish them. The wisdom of the ages abides in that common sense.

From: USA Today, March 1985.

 

BANALITY AND TERROR

by David Gelman with Rich Thomas

A think tank suggests that terrorism may become part of everyday life — numbing responses to it

In a controversial book on the trial of Adolf Eichmann more than two decades ago, the late Hannah Arendt coined the phrase «the banality of evil» to describe the way in which a «terrifying normal» man

5        helped turn the extermination of people into bureaucratic routine. Unthinking but obedient, Eichmann under orders took genocide to a higher level of efficiency — and in so doing, inured himself to all feelings of repentance or even responsibility. But the unprecedented all too soon be­comes precedent, Arendt wrote.

10    Now a study has found a chilling analogue in the loose but global «infrastructure» that helps to sustain terrorism worldwide. «To a certain extent,» says the report by Brian M.Jenkins for the Rand Corp., terrorism has become «institutionalized. «Some governments not only pro­vide logistical backing and

15    sanctuary but designate an agency to oversee relations with the terrorists. «Like any bureaucracy», says Jenkins, chief terrorism analyst for the California-based think tank, «that agency competes for influence and budget, promises results and resists dismantling.» Indeed, the report notes», a semipermanent subculture of

20    terrorism» is emerging with overlapping personnel and some common sources of fi­nancing and weapons supply.

Jenkins acknowledges that his findings, presented in early December to a seminar at Georgetown

25      University's Center for Strategic and International Studies, offer little hope of a respite from the current epidemic of assassinations, bombings and hijackings. Despite some scattered successes in combating terrorist groups, incidents have been increasing at an annual rate of about 12 to 15 percent. Even more

30    alarming, there is an apparent trend toward «large-scale indiscriminative violence» in everyday locations— like the bomb that ripped through a Brighton hotel in 1984 where British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was attending a Conservative Party conference — or in airplanes or railroad stations resulting in

35    multiple fatalities. In one such incident, during a bloody splurge of terrorism last June, an Air-India flight carrying 329 passengers plunged into the Atlantic, off Ireland. Investigators suspect Sikh terrorists had planted a suitcase bomb aboard the plane.

The escalation of violence may stem from the peculiar and troubling relationship between terrorists and

40      the news media, in Jenkin's view. That an airplane hijacking or the bombing of a crowded marketplace will command headlines is no less axi­omatic for the perpetrators of the act than for those who report it. Yet as such events grow more commonplace, terrorists can no longer count on instant public sensation or

45    prominent coverage. In fact, notes Jenkins, some kidnapping of minor U.S. government officials abroad have not been reported by the press at all. Thus, in a curious way, the sheer frequency of terrorist acts can be self defeating, he says. Terrorists appear to be dealing with the problem with ever more spectacular

50      assaults. «They may feel compelled to escalate their violence in order to keep public attention», his report theorizes, «or to recover coercive power lost as governments have become more resistant to their

55    demands.» Like most students of the phe­nomenon, Jenkins seems more inclined to describe then prescribe. «I can't think of any way you are going to eradicate international terrorism», he confesses. «It's a condition, not a specific disease, and you can treat the condition, but you can't cure it.» And the condition is apt to

60   grow more sophisticated, says Jenkins. «I know this seems like a bleak and unpromising picture. But it's   what's there, it's what there is.»

The one consolation he seems to find is that the mayhem may be self-limiting, since even terrorists should draw the line at committing acts that would alienate the constituency they are trying to reach or that

65       might provoke massive reprisals. Yet that consideration did not deter such a ruthless venture as the hijacking of the Achille Lauro.* In truth, the experts seem barely able even to describe effectively any longer. As more and more splinter groups and competing factions set out to distinguish themselves in the

70      busy arena of international banditry, terrorist incidents seem to become more random, more arbitrary in their targets, less connected to any identifiable cause. A year ago, when a bomb tore through a Naples-Milan express train, killing 15 passengers and injuring more than 150, every­one from the neofascist Black

75     Order to the left-wing Red Brigades to an Islamic guerrilla group claimed credit for the act.

* Achille Lauro — An Italian cruise ship, hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in 1985. An American passenger in a wheelchair was murdered.

It is a disturbing thought that terrorism has become routi nized — taking on, as historian Walter Laqueur noted in his own 1977 study of the subject», a certain resemblance to the anonymous character of a

80     multinational corporation.» Even more disturbing, says Jenkins, is the prospect that it will merge into the quotidian routine. As the media sharpens its tech­niques for instant coverage, «we will see even more terrorism. The extraordinary security measures taken against terrorism will have become a permanent part

85    of the landscape.» That, he concludes, «may be the most insidious... development in the coming years. Terrorism will become an accepted fact of contem porary life — commonplace, ordinary, banal, and therefore somehow "tolerable".»

From: Newsweek, January 6, 1986

 

TWO ANALOGIES FROM THE NOVELS OF CHINUA ACHEBE

An ANALOGY is a comparison that is set up between two similar things. The usual reason for using analogies is to ex­plain complex, abstract ideas or unfamiliar things in terms of something concrete and familiar: life may be compared with a journey, death with sleep, etc. The following anecdote about Frederick the Great of Prussia uses analogy to present an ob­ject lesson:

The king asked his guests at a state banquet to explain why his revenues continued to shrink even though the taxes remained heavy. An old general volunteered a dem­onstration. He called for a large chunk of ice, held it up, then handed it to his neighbour. It was passed from hand to hand around the table to the monarch. When it reached Frederick, it was the size of a bean.*

Now consider the following analogy set up by a character in a novel — Things Fall Apart — by the African writer Chinua Achebe. (This novel dramatizes traditional Ibo life in its first encounter with colonialism and Christianity at the turn of the century. It is the story of a «strong» man whose life is domi­nated by fear and anger. Okonkwo is constantly afraid that he, or his son Nwoya, will be like his father Unoka, who had been a lazy, ineffectual man. To prove his strength he kills his adopted son at the bidding of the priestess and the elders. His own son is grief-stricken at the manner of his beloved brother's death and later becomes a Christian. Okonkwo sees this as the fulfilment of his worst fears.)

Text A:

«Okonkwo was popularly called the «Roaring Flame». As he looked into the log fire he recalled the name. He was a flaming fire. How-then could he have begotten a son like Nwoya, degenerate and effeminate? Perhaps he was not his son. No! He could not be. His wife had played him false. He would teach her! But Nwoya re­sembled his grandfather Unoka, who was Okonkwo's father. He pushed the thought out of his mind. He, Okonkwo, was called a flaming fire. How could he have begotten a woman for a son? At Nwoya's age Okonkwo had already become famous throughout Umuofia for his wrestling and his fearlessness. He sighed heavily, and as if in sympathy the smoldering log also sighed. And im­mediately Okonkwo's eyes were opened and he saw the whole matter clearly. Living fire begets cold, impotent ash. He sighed again, deeply.»

* From : Literary Terms: Definitions, Explanations, Ex­amples — by Raymond W. Barry and A.J. Wright

Exercise :

1. What is the complex phenomenon that Okonkwo is try­ing to explain to himself by means of a concrete analogy?

2. What are the terms of the analogy (i.e., what are the points of similarity that Okonkwo sees between the abstract and the concrete phenomena?)

3. What significant differences can you think of between the two terms of Okonkwo's analogy (differences which he overlooks)?

Text B: From: No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe) (Obi, educated in Europe, wants to marry a girl from his tribe whose family belongs to a sacred caste. Such a marriage is forbidden by their tradition [it is taboo]. His old father Nwoya cannot let him go against their ancestral tradition, even though he is a Christian.)

«There was a long silence. The lamp was now burning too brightly. Obi's father turned down the wick a little and then resumed his silence. After what seemed ages he said: I know Josiah Okeke very well». He was looking steadily in front of him. His voice sounded tired. «I know him and I know his wife. He is a good man and a great Christian. But he is osu {taboo}. Naaman, Captain of the host of Syria, was a great man and honorable, he was also a mighty man of valour, but he was a leper.» He paused so that this great and felicitous analogy might sink in with all its heavy and dreadful weight. Osu is like leprosy in the minds of our people. I beg of you, my son, not to bring the mark of shame and of leprosy into your family. If you do, your children and your children's children unto the third and fourth generations will curse your memory. It is not for myself.

I speak: my days are few. You will bring sorrow on your head and on the heads of your children. Who will marry your daughters? Whose daughters will your sons marry? Think of that, my son.»

Exercise:

1. What are the terms of the comparison here (i.e. which abstract concept is being compared with what physical phe­nomenon)?

2. What difference between the terms being compared will Obi have to overlook if he is to accept the validity of the anal­ogy that his father sets up?

3. a. What are the advantages of using analogy instead of rational analysis as a means of explaining and understanding a complex abstract phenomenon?

b. What are the dangers inherent in relying upon analogy as a method of explanation and/or understanding?

c. What is the father's purpose in using the analogy (what effect does he hope it will have on his son's behavior)?

d. Does it matter, for the father's purpose, that there are significant differences between the things he compares in his analogy?

e. Should it matter to his son that there are actually signifi­cant differences between the terms in his father's analogy?

 

THE ECONOMETRICS SYSTEM

by William J. Reynolds

1.Last year Lawrence R.Klein, professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania, became the ninth American to win the Nobel Prize in Economics since the category's incep­tion in 1968. Klein's prize,

5   and its $215,000 purse, was awarded for no single endeavor, but for Klein's trailblazing efforts in the refinement and further development of the economic de­vice call econometrics.

2.No, econometrics doesn't seek to determine the ramifi­cations of converting to grams and liters.

10   Econometrics is perhaps best thought of as a tool by which economic theories-abstract ideas — are empirically tested and expressed in quanti­tative terms (i.e., hard numbers).

3.While the roots of econometrics can be traced to the 1830s (in such works as Antoine Augustin

15    Coumot's «Recherches surles principes mathematiques de la theorie des richesse», 1938), the seminal work came about in the 1930s. With the world economy in the grip of a monumental global depression, the need for developing a way to accurately predict the effects of economic policy became obvious. Jan Tinberg of

20  the Netherlands established much of the groundwork then, examining the inter dependence of separate factors — variables such as pro­ductivity, consumption, employment, national income, retail prices and the usual economic catch phrases — within an eco­nomic system, and even beyond: who can dispute that the

25   policies enacted in the other economies affect our own?

4. For his work Tinberg was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1969, but it is Lawrence Klein who is acknowledged as having made the first practical application of econometrics in the 1950s, by using modem

30   computer-coded tools of statistical analysis to verify Tinberg's idea of interrelationship and to express those relation­ships quantitatively, in terms of mathematical formulae.

5.These formulae are arrived at by painstaking recording the historical movements of goods and services

35  throughout an economy's various sectors — government, capital formation, household goods, etc. The historical relationships of these sec­tors are studied and applied to the construction of equations that attempt to forecast, for instance, how a given change in total after-tax income, coupled with a change in wholesale prices, is likely to affect consumption.

40      6. Basic cause-and-effect, right? But it takes a comprehen­sive set of equations to account for all of the significant vari­ables and what will happen to them all — simultaneously — if something changes. This set

45   composes an econometric model and, since the model is only as good as the data it can accommodate, a valid model must contain literally scores of formu­lae. At Pennsylvania, Klein works with a model that strives to describe the total global economy — and which contains over 1,000 individual variables.

50         7. Lately the validity of existing econometric models — specifically, their forecasting abilities — has been questioned. The severity of recent economic occurrences such as the 1974 re­cession and the significant inflation of a year ago were not indicated in the forecasts. There is concern among some econo mists that

55      the historical assumptions on which current econometrics is based may no longer be wholly applicable.

8. Nonetheless, economists and those who rely on economic information are in no hurry to disavow themselves of any asso­ciation with econometrics. Just last year, Business Week was publishing regular

60  quarterly forecasts based on information retrieved from Klein's system-model. Econometric predictions might not be letter-perfect, but they're the best predictions avail­able, at least by dint of being the only ones available.

9. And since economists, like meteorologists, will forever be called upon to make predictions, they will

65  forever seek to  fine-tune, improve and even reinvent their going-out-on-a-limb tools. If there's such a thing as perpetual motion, this must surely be it.

10. No wonder economics is called the dismal science.

Exercise

1. (General Question) This article can be divided into five sections. The paragraph divisions for sections I and II and the sub-titles for sections I and V are given below. Fill in the missing paragraph numbers and sub-titles.

I. Term «Econometrics» Introduced               1

II.___________________________ 2

III.__________________________ __

 

IV.__________________________ __

Current Status of Econometrics        __

2. Fill in the empty spaces in the table below, giving date, name, and contribution to the history of econometrics.

Date

 

Name

 

Contribution to the history of Econometrics

 

 

 

 

 

Recherches sur les principes mathematiques de la theorie de richesse

 

 

 

Lawrence Klein

 

 

 

1930s

 

 

 

 

 

3.      What caused Jan Tinberg to develop his theory?

a.    the research ofAugustin Coumot

b.    the depression of the 1930"s

c.  the interdependence of economic variables

d. the effects of other economic systems on our own

4.      What word in the text means the same as «factors»

(1.21)?________

5. Between the following phrases, insert the best mathemati­cal symbol to reflect the meaning of the phrase beginning on 1.37-39, «how a given change.....consumption.»

5.      Klein's econometric model contains over 1,000 variables because

 

a.       there are 1,000 significant variables in economics

b.      the validity of the model depends upon its completeness

c.       the model attempts to forecast the economy of the entire world.

d.  the validity of econometrics has been questioned

6.      In paragraph 6, Reynolds gives a definition of econometrics.

In what earlier paragraph has he also given a definition of econometrics? ____

8. The example of Business Week publishing Klein's fore­casts (11.53) is meant to show that

9. The current opinion of econometrics held by the experts is that

a.       it contains over 1,000 variables

b.      it is valid for forecasting economic changes

c.       it is based on assumptions which are no longer valid

d.      although it is not perfect, it is the only economic fore­casting tool available

10. «Going-out-on-a-limb tools» (11.65-66) are tools for

11. «This» (1.67) refers to __________________

 

SUBSISTENCE ALLOWANCE

by Erich Fromm from The Sane Society, 1955

A hundred years ago it was a widely accepted belief that no one had responsibility for his neighbour. It was assumed and scientifically «proved» by economists that the laws of society made it necessary to have a

5        vast army of poor and jobless people in order to keep the economy going. Today, hardly anybody would dare to voice this principle any longer. It is generally accepted that nobody should be excluded from the wealth of the nation, either by the laws of nature, or by those of society. The rationalisations which were

10    current a hundred years ago, that the poor owed their condition to their ignoranee, lack of responsibility — briefly to their «sins»— are out­dated. In all Western industrialized countries a system of in­surance has been introduced which guarantees everyone a mini­mum of subsistence in case of unemployment, sickness and

15    old age. It is only one step further to postulate that, even if these conditions are not present, everyone has the right to receive the means to subsist. Practically speaking, that would mean that every citizen can claim

20    a sum — enough for the minimum of subsistence — even though he is not unemployed, sick or aged. He can demand this sum if he has quit his job voluntarily, if he wants to prepare himself for another type of work, or for any personal reason which prevents him from earning money, without falling under one of the

25    categories of the existing insurance benefits, in short, he can claim this subsistence minimum without having to have any «reason». It should be limited to a definite period of time, let us say two years, so as to avoid the fostering of a neurotic attitude which refuses any kind of social obligations.

30                This may sound like a fantastic proposal, but so would our insurance system have sounded to people a hundred years ago. The main objection to such a scheme would be that if each person were entitled to receive minimum support, people would not work. This assumption rests on the fallacy of the inherent

35    laziness in human nature; actually, aside from neurotically lazy people, there would be very few who would not want to earn more than the minimum, and would prefer to do nothing rather than work!

However, the suspicions against a system of guaranteed sub­sistence minimums are not unfounded from

40    the standpoint of those who want to use ownership of capital for the purpose of forcing others to accept the work conditions they offer. If no­body were forced to accept work in order not to starve, work would have to be sufficiently interesting and attractive to in­duce one to accept it. Freedom of contract is possible only if

45    both parties are free to accept and reject it; in the present capitalist system this is not the case.

But such a system would be not only the beginning of real freedom of contract between employers and

50  employees; it would also enhance tremendously the sphere of freedom of interpersonal relationship between person and person in daily life.

 

SUBSISTENCE ALLOWANCE

Exercise

1. What aspect of the prevailing capitalist system was Fromm complaining about?

2. In what way would his proposal, if adopted, alleviate this problem?

3. Who does he see as the likely enemies of his proposal?

4. What does Fromm imply is one reason for the lack of freedom of interpersonal relationships between persons in daily life?

IT'S ALL GREEK

What's distinctive about the following text?

Democrat Michael Dukakis* is better at POLITICS than economics, better at TACTICS than STRATEGY, lacks CHA­RISMA and has an ORTHODOX BUREAUCRATIC PER­SONA; he can SYNTHESIZE ETHNIC blocs, and is a PRAG-MATIST, nor a DEMAGOGUE. What's distinctive is that all the key words derive from Greek. Those who find Mr.Dukakis's origins EXOTIC may be astonished to find they have been speaking Greek all their lives.

Some 2,500 years ago, with epic results, rocky Attica and its city-states plunged into fissionable arguments over HIS­TORY, ETHICS, PHILOSOPHY, THEOLOGY, PHISICS, CHEMISTRY, GEOGRAPHY, MATHEMATICS, AS­TRONOMY, SOCIOLOGY, and PSYCHOLOGY - every word a Greek compound.

«Cracy» is Greek for rule or government, and «demos» are the people; similar compounds yielded ARISTOCRACY, PLU­TOCRACY and THEOCRACY. ANARCHY is Greek for ab­sence of government, OLIGARCHY for rule by the few. TYRANY is a Hellenic word, so is DESPOT, as is their NEM­ESIS the TYRANNICIDE.

«Polis» pertains to a city-state, and «ic» to a body ofknowledge; hence POLITICS — and by the same LOGIC (from «logos» or word) TACTICS, PHYSICS, STATISTICS,. «Doxy» is opinion or DOCTRINE; hence, ORTHODOXY and HET­ERODOXY. «Ology» is a branch of knowledge; hence, THE­OLOGY , ASTROLOGY and COSMOLOGY. PRAGMATIC is from «pragmaticos,» meaning versed in state affairs. And «CHARISMA» stems from the word for gift, which, according to ancient ETHNIC (from the word for nation) slander, is to be regarded warily when the bearer is Greek. Over to you, Governor Dukakis.

* Michael Dukakis was the Democratic Party Candidate for President of the U.S.A. who ran against President Bush (the Republican Party Candidate) in the 1988 election. Dukakis is of Greek origin.

Exercise:

A. Using a College Level English-English dictionary, look up the following words and write next to each the word (and its definition) from which the English word derives. [Word derivations are usually given in brackets at the end of the list of definitions.] 1. economics 2. tactic 3. strategy 4. orthodox 5. synthesis 5. analysis 7. ethnic 8. cosmos 9. legal 10. social

B. Which of the words are not Greek in origin? From what language do they derive?

 

THE MYSTERY OF LANGUAGE

-HOW DID LANGUAGE BEGIN?

by Ann Finkbeiner

Cavemen would come to need what all languages provide ways to distinguish between cause and effect, present and past, real and unreal, state and process. They'd need a way to show specificity, so that «Let's

5        have lamb for supper» could not be  confused with «Let's eat Fluffy.» We can figure what cavemen would eventually need to say: anthropologists and physiolo­gists who study ancient skulls can even guess when they came to say it. But there are no fossil clues to how language began. Perhaps something could be

10    deduced from animal communication. Chimpanzees, for example, have been taught to con­verse in sign language, and some theorists suggest that human language began as a system of gestures or with calls of alarm. Others object, as no one can conclusively trace a line from animallike commu nications to the subtle,

15    complex language humans use.

THE INNATE ELEMENT

The majority of linguists — though by no means a consen­sus — believe humans’ ability to learn language is at least in part innate, that it is somehow woven into our genetic makeup. Noam Chomsky,

20      theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, proposes a specific neurological program that en­ables children to learn to use grammatically correct structures instead of nonsensical ones. Children, says Chomsky, cannot learn language solely on the basis of what they are taught, and in any case they learn it

25   too quickly for that to be true. But evidence for a genetic program is hard to come by. Children learn language in an intensely verbal environment, and lin­guists cannot maroon1) babies in a desert laboratory. Oddly, a few circumstances do resemble marooning. Some children bom deaf will invent a system of signs

30    their parents do not use. And more provocatively, children will use creoles2), a class of lan­guages that arise when speakers of mutually unintelligible lan­guages are thrown into persistent contact.

Derek Bickerton, linguist at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, believes that Creoles provide

35  evidence for an innate language program. Creoles — more than a hundred are known — generally appeared when the slave trade and European co­lonialism forced great numbers of people who spoke different languages to work together.

40      Because no one, for example, spoke Haitian Creole French before 1630, nor Hawaiian Creole English before 1880, lin­guists have been able to look at not only the grammatical struc­ture of Creoles but also their development.

Notes:  [1] maroon: to abandon in a place where no one lives with no means of getting away

[2] Creole: an American or West Indian language which is a combination of a European language and one or more others.

Typically, a community of workers would first speak a pid­gin3). They would use the vocabulary of their

45      bosses with part of whatever grammar, was native to them. Pidgins are make­shift, inefficient languages with grammatical features not com­mon to all speakers. The workers' children, however, spoke a Creole. The children's vocabulary didn't differ from pidgin, but they used a common grammar, which, according to

50     Bickerton, is unlike any they could have heard. Remarkably, all Creoles share similar grammar.

Creoles, then, appear to solve some of the same problems tense, for example — in the same way. In

55  Hawaiian Creole English, «walk» is past tense only; «bin walk» means «had walked»; «stay walk» is continuing action, as in «I am walking» or «I was walking», and «I bin stay walk» means — «I had been walking.» Very similar tense systems are used in all other Creoles, whatever their vocabularies.

LINGUISTIC NEWBORNS

60      — Languages from different times, in different countries, with different vocabularies that still have common grammati­cal features? How does that bear on the origin of language? According to some linguists it doesn't. Languages spread, of course, and Creoles may have linguistic roots in the pidgins that arose as

65      early Portuguese traders travelled through West Africa. Bickerton, however, sees Creoles as linguistic newborns, and he believes that Creole grammar reflects Chomsky's innate program for ordering language.

As Bickerton explains it, all children grow up in an envi­ronment relentlessly speaking Japanese, French,

70      English, etc. But they draw on the same innate grammar that gives rise to Creoles. Linguists have long known that as children learn their parents' language they make certain mistakes systematically. Dan Slobin of the University of California at Berkeley has studied children's mistakes across at least a dozen different

75      languages. When comparing their errors to Creole grammar, says Slobin, «the resemblance is striking.» For example, many children, like creole speakers, use a negative subject with a negative verb. «Nobody don't

80      like me» a child will say; or in Guyanese Creole, «No dog did not bite no cat.» And neither child nor creole user asks questions by changing word order; they question by intonation alone: «You can fix this?»

Notes:   [3] Pidgin: a mixture of two or more languages especially as used between people who do not speak each other's language.

CULTURAL DEMANDS

In Bickerton's scenario, then, a caveman's language would have structurally resembled a Creole. Succeeding generations of cavemen, like the developing child, would have suited language to environment.

85    Different cultures make different de­mands on language. «Biological language,» says Bickerton, «re­mained right where it was, while cultural language rode off in all directions.» But when culture is uprooted — the

90    slave trade, for example — our biological rules for ordering language are still at home.

Reactions to Bickerton's hypothesis are mixed. Not only might Creoles be descended from other languages, but some linguists doubt that the child who uses a Creole qualifies as «marooned», for he still

95  grows up hearing language. And many  people question Bickerton's interpretation of those grammati­cal similarities.

A few linguists do believe Bickerton is on to something. «On the whole,» says John Rickford of

100 Stanford University, whose native language is Guyanese Creole, «Bickerton might 100 have his left sock on his right foot, but in the long run I think he's going to be dressed.» Even if there is an innate component to language, which isn't a new idea, it doesn't solve the mys­tery of how such a Chomsky-type program

105 arose. The origins of language remain obscured in our evolutionary past.

from Current, Sept. 1984

Exercise:

1. «linguists cannot maroon babies in a desert laboratory.» (1.27)

(a) If they could do this — what scientific experiment would they be able to carry out?

(b) What theory would their results either confirm or dis­prove?

2. What are the two circumstances mentioned which «do resemble marooning» (1.28) In what way?

3. What do the different Creoles have in common?

4. What theory about how children learn language does this fact about Creoles seem to support?

5. What are some of the reservations that other linguists have with regard to Bickerton's hypothesis concerning Creoles?

 

THE TASK OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY

by Bertrand Russell

The most important effect of machine production on the imaginative picture of the world is an immense increase in the sense of human power. This is only an acceleration of a pro­cess which began before the

5        dawn of history, when men diminished their fear of wild animals by the invention of weap­ons and their fear of starvation by the invention of agriculture. But the acceleration has been so great as to produce a radically new outlook in those who wield the powers that modern tech­nique has created. In the old days, mountains and waterfalls were natural phenomena; now, an inconvenient mountain can be abolished and a convenient

10    waterfall can be created. In the old days, there were deserts and fertile regions; now, the desert can, if people think it worthwhile, be made to blossom like the rose, while fertile regions are turned to deserts by in

15   sufficiently scientific optimists. In the old days, peasants lived as their parents and grandparents had lived and believed as their parents and grandparents had believed; not all the power of the Church could eradicate

20    pagan ceremonies, which had to be given a Christian dress by being connected with local saints. Now the authorities can decree what the children of peasants shall learn in school, and can transform the mentality of agri­culturalists in a generation. One gathers that this has been achieved in Russia.

25                There thus arises, among those who direct affairs or are in touch with those who do so, a new belief in power: first, the power of man in his conflicts with nature, and then the power of rulers as against the human beings whose beliefs and aspira­tions they seek to control by scientific propaganda, especially in

30    education. The result is that fixity is diminished; no change seems impossible. Nature is raw material; so is that part of the human race which does not effectively participate in govern­ment. There are certain old conceptions which represent men's belief in the limits of human power; of these the two chief are God and

53    truth. Such conceptions tend to melt away; even if not explicitly negated, they lose importance, and are retained only superficially. This whole outlook is new, and it is impos­sible to say how mankind will adapt itself to it. It has already produced immense cataclysms, and will, no doubt, produce others in the future. To

40    frame a philosophy capable of coping with men intoxicated with the prospect of almost unlimited power and also with the apathy of the powerless is the most pressing task of our time.

From Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy (1945).

 

From:

«PRICING THE PRICELESS CHILD»*

* For an elaboration of the theme of this text, see «The Genesis of the Modem Toy,» in Pan III.

by Viviana A. Zelizer

I will argue that the expulsion of children from the «cash nexus»** at the turn of the past century, although clearly shaped by profound changes in the economic, occupational, and fam­ily structures, was

5    also part of a cultural process of«sacralization»  of children's lives. The term sacralization is used in the

        sense of objects being invested with sentimental or religious mean­ing. While in the nineteenth century the market value of chil­dren was culturally acceptable, later the new normative ideal of the child as an

10    exclusively emotional and  affective asset precluded instrumental or fiscal considerations. In an increas­ingly commercialized world, children were reserved a separate, noncommercial place. The economic and sentimental value of children were thereby declared to be radically incompatible. Only mercenary or

15    insensitive parents violated the boundary by accepting the wages or labor contributions of useful child. Properly loved children, regardless of social class, belonged in a domesticated, nonproductive world of lessons, games, and token money. It was not a simple process. At every step work­ing class and middle-class

20    advocates of a useful childhood battled the social construction of the economically useless child.

** Cash nexus — the money system

 

Exercise:

1.According to the American College Dictionary, «asset» (1.9) means «a useful thing or a quality» — or — «an item of property.»

a. What definition seems to apply here?

b. The writer is being ironical when he modifies the word «asset» with the terms «exclusively emotional» and «affective.» (Usually we expect our «assets» to have qualities of a very different sort.) Who, or what, do you suppose he is poking fun at here? (I.e., which social classes can afford to hold on to «exclusively emotional» and useless property? Which one can­not?)

2. What is the implied connection between the fact that the world was being «increasingly commercialized» (1.10) and the fact that people who could afford to live without their children's «wages or labor contributions» (1.15) began to insist that «chirdren...belonged in a domesticated, nonproductive world of lessons, games, and token money» (11.16-18)?

3. «Properly loved children» (1.16)

a. Who (or what social class) decided what the «proper» way to love a child was? (Can there be any one «proper» way to love?)

b. Which social classes had other ideas about this?

4. How has the writer previously prepared us to understand the last sentence as implying that a «useful childhood» is not necessarily a bad thing, while an «economically useless child» is not necessarily good thing?

 

From:

«THE FRENZY OF RENOWN»

by Leo Baudy (New York Times Book Review (4.9.86)

The fame that is spiritually justifying purports to compen­sate for the social uneasiness of being successful. By now, al­most everyone has heard the innumerable stories of the trap of fame and glory. But

5         most still strive, for part of the promise of modern fame is that you and you alone will be able to do it differently, surmounting the past because you have learned from or ignored its examples. Once the spiritual fulfillment promised by modern fame is given, goes its myth, it can never be taken away. In the face of the

10    myriad identities and demands of a more populous world, the spiritual glow conveyed by being recognized means finally not having to say who you are. Touched by the magic wand of this secular religion, the aspirant moves beyond the usual social context of achievement to a place where there is no career, no

15    progress, no advance, no change — only the purity of being celebrated for being oneself.The aspiration to such purity restates the close relation fame has always had to both death and transfiguration: the desire to find a place where one may live untarnished and uncorrupted throughout the ages.

Exercise:

1.      «purports to compensate for the social uneasiness» (11.1-2)

a. What is the subject of the verb purports? ________

b. «to purport» means to profess, to assert, to claim, or to convey some idea, meaning, intention, or significance. That is its PRIMARY MEANING. Its SECONDARY MEANING or CONNOTATION is «to lay claim, INSINCERELY, or FALSELY, to some idea, meaning, intention or significance (i.e., ptetense of some sort.) i. What pretense is the writer referring to here? _____ ii. What (in the following sentence) makes it clear that the idea of a «pretense» or false claim is what he has in maind? ______________________

2. «But the most still strive» (1.4)

The word «still» here means «nevertheless». The statement tells us that most people continue to strive for something nev­ertheless (i.e., even though one would expect them not to do so).

a. What do they continue to strive for? _____________

b. Why would one expect them not to do so? ________

3. «that you and you alone» (1.5)

a. The pronoun «you» refers to _______________

b. What special effect is achieved by introducing the pro­noun here?

4. «surmounting the past» (1.6) means____________

5. «its myth» (1.8) refers to the myth associated with ___

6. «In the face ... you are» (11.9-12)

Living as we do in a «more populous world» (1.10) requires that we be capable of assuming «myriad identities» and re­sponding to many «demands» (11.9)

a. what sort of escape does fame promise from the demands being made upon us?    ______________________

7. Consider the list of concepts in 11.14-15 («career», «progress», «advance» and «change»):

a. Do they usually have a positive or negative CONNOTA­TION?

b. What does the statement in 11.12-16 («Touched by ... be­ing oneself») suggest about the relationship between these con­cepts and being famous?_____________________

c. What is surprising about this suggested relationship?

8. «Purity» (1.15) refers to the condition of being pure or free of anything that debases (reduces the quality or value) or contaminates (makes impure by contact or mixture).

a. In the context of this passage, does «purity» have a po­sitive or a negative connotation? (i.e., is it desirable or un­desirable)

9. «The aspiration ... the ages.» (1.16-end)

a. What are the usual connotations of «death»? ______

 

b. What are the usual connotations of «transfiguration»___

 

c. What are the usual connotations of «fame»?_______

d. What is surprising about the statement that «fame» and «death» and «transfiguration» have always been in «close rela­tion» to one another?

10. What finally are the connotations of «fame» in the con­text of this particular passage?


BOOK II

PART IV

LONGER READING

 

LEARNING THE HARD WAY

 

How to Help Children Triumph

Over Learning Disabilities

by Melinda Blau

     (1) By the time she was in the twelfth grade, Jessica Dupont* thought she was retarded. In the early years, she had fooled teachers by memorizing the lessons her classmates read aloud. When she was twelve and her parents separated, she  began to pull out her hair — literally. She was labeled emo­tionally disturbed. Her divorced parents argued over who had done the most harm, and Jessica continued to fail — and suf­fer.

* The names of all of the parents and children in this article have been changed

 

10          (2) At fifteen, Jason Leigh had retired — from school, from his classmates, from the basketball team. Withdrawn, angry, he turned to drugs. When his school suggested he go elsewhere, his parents grounded him and said he'd better start working harder — or else. They felt guilty and frustrated, not to mention

15    angry at the expensive private schools and tutors they had paid over the years to correct Jason's «reading problem».

            (3)Michael Elliott was a sickly child who had been in and out of the hospital more times than his mother

      could count. When Pamela Elliott began taking him around to various kin­dergartens, every interviewer told

20 her the same thing: «He's bright, but»... At the end of first grade it still took Michael fifteen minutes to read c-a-t, his school said that was the fault of his parents and advised them to see a psychiatrist.

            (4) Nicholas Sandford was a failure by the time he was in nursery school. He couldn't draw an X or

25  pronounce words correctly or run down the block without tripping over his feet. He was the sandbox bully, always hitting other children or taking their toys. His mother blamed herself and eventually sought psychological help for Nicky.

30          (5) Jessica and Jason and Michael and Nicky are among the millions of American children who find themselves la­beled slow learners, retarded, emotionally disturbed. Their parents and teachers often call them difficult, frustrating, even bad. Yet all of these children are of average or above-average intelligence,

35    they are considered psychologically normal, and they have normal sight and hearing. But they just aren't like their peers, and they never will be: their brains are structur­ally different. Recent research utilizing brainscanning devices points to an underlying neurophysiological basis for their prob­lems.

40     (6) The fashionable abbreviation for their condition is «LD», which stands for «learning disability», «learning disorder», or «learning difficulty», depending on one's orientation. Some therapists prefer «learning difference», which implies not so much a disorder as a condition that needn't be stigmatized.

45          (7) Last year, 70,000 New York City public-school students were classified as learning disabled. But there are probably 50,000 to 290,000 more children with LDs in this city who were not counted because they haven't been diagnosed or because they are in private or parochial schools: There were 1.2 million

50   students in kindergartens through twelfth grade in the city dur­ing the 1986-1987 school year, and most experts estimate that from 10 to 30 percent of the school population has some form of learning disorder.

55        (8) Parents of children with LDs are often confused, guilty, angry, and isolated. They don't understand why their Jane or Johnny isn't learning, especially if they have shelled out $5,000 to $10,000 a year to make sure he or she does. The fact that some of the greatest minds in history (Einstein and da Vinci, for instance)

60    have triumphed over this «hidden handicap» is of little consolation to the mother who sees her eight'year old straining to put his right shoe on his right foot.

      (9) Not even the wisest parents can eliminate a learning disorder — their children have, simply stated, a different kind of mind. Nor can parents alter the reality that most schools — even private schools — are not prepared to teach these chil­dren. But parents can make a difference: their nurturing can help their learning-disabled child function even flourish — despite the disability, instead of growing into a fearful human being who backs away from life.

70               (10) «When we talk about a learning disability, we're talk­ing about a difficulty in acquiring, retrieving, storing, process­ing, using or expressing information», explains Lynne Hacker, a speech-and-language

75    pathologist whose private practice is devoted solely to helping children, adolescents, and adults with LDs.

(11) The term «dyslexia», often used interchangeably with «learning disability», refers specifically to any type of problem with language, whether it's speaking, listening, reasoning, un­derstanding, reading,

80  writing, spelling, or even arithmetic, which  is a type of language. Many children have more than one prob­lem. «The label is not as important as understanding where and how the disability affects children and finding out what can be done to help them». Hacker says.

85           (12) Parents who don't understand how a learning difference affects behavior may unwillingly form an alliance with the legions of educators throughout the child's school career who can't explain his erratic performance. Teachers may call the child lazy or willful, or say he's bright but doesn't apply himself, or

90      commend his insightful comments but wonder why his intellect is not reflected in the tests he takes and the home­work he turns in. («He» is used for simplicity's sake. Psycholo­gist Rosa Hagin, a professor in the Graduate School of Educa­tion at Fordham University, disputes the traditional assump­tion that learning

95   disorders occur for or five times more frequently in boys than in girls. She has concluded, based on her testing of 10,000 young children in New York City and subur­ban public schools, that boys more frequently get the LD label because they tend to express their frustrarion through disrup­tive behavior, while girls

100  generally respond by becoming quiet and withdrawn).

(13) Irritated parents compound the problem by punishing, blaming, accusing. «Why aren't you listening?» and «How many times do I have to tell you?» are common cries. Because they know that the

105 child is bright, they suspect him of «conning» them, of purposely testing their limits. But these children can't read visual signals the way other people do, so when a teacher or parent is about to explode, the child literally doesn't know when to quit.

110    (14) Believing their parents and teachers are against them, many children give up. Jessica Dupont was one of them. Even though she sometimes had as many as five tutors, she couldn't keep up in school. Neither her teachers nor the professionals who tutored her understood that giving Jessica more of what she was getting in school just wouldn't help her learn.

115    (15) «I felt like I was a complete failure», Jessica says. «I was the sttipid one — my sister was smart. Every time a report card came out, I got yelled at. My parents thought I had no motivation. Eventually I didn't have any desire to study».

120     (16) Carole Dupont is still amazed that no one at any of the elite private schools she chose ever identified her daughter's problem. «I couldn't understand why every year she was hav­ing so much trouble just passing. She was so quick. I knew something was wrong. In fourth grade, I asked the teacher if she

125  thought that Jessica had some type of learning disability. Her only remark was a condescending «Don't compare her to her older sister».

(17) How can a child know how to spell or read a word one day and forget it the next? What makes him

130 reply «Fine» to the question «How old are you?»? Why should a bright child of nine still have trouble telling time?

(18) Some neurologists believe that the dyslexic brain is «wired» differently from the non-dyslexic brain. According to their theory, the right hemisphere of a learning-disable child's brain is larger than the

135 left hemisphere. These researchers suspect that during the second trimester of pregnancy, cells that should migrate from the right side to the language centers in the left side don't get there but rather end up in the frontal lobe, where they do not mature.

140     (19) A child with this kind of anomalous brain will have tremendous difficulty learning by conventional teaching meth­ods geared to the «normal» brain. But if given help, an LD child can overcome the obstacles he faces: language therapy tailored to the workings of the dyslexic brain can teach it to compensate for its deficiencies and maximize its strengths.

145    (20) A learning difficulty can be inherited. The child's mother

or father may have done poorly in school and may still not be much of a reader; his grandfather's bad handwriting and ter­rible spelling may be the stuff of family legend. Such problems may be indications that the parent or grandparent had an LD.


150      (21) Signs of a dyslexic child's problems in processing lan­guage usually surface long before he goes to   school. He may speak a jargon that only the family understands, or, at 30 months, fail to speak even two

155  word sentences. (Early motor development may also be slow or uneven.) He may be incapable of remembering the order of words in a nursery rhyme or become bewildered when given simple directions, especially if they involve top and bottom, first and last, or other time and space concepts. He may confuse

160  or forget the names of things. As one five-year-old puts it, «Me brain good, but me brain forgets».

(22) As they get older, the same children whose charming mispronunciations — «psgetti», perhaps, or «aminal» — dotted their early conversations, may continue to talk «baby talk» because they don't

165 understand which sound accompanies which letter or the order in which they hear certain sounds. They may be unable to distinguish among p,b and d, learn words by sight-recognition, or write letters without reversing them. Al­though many of these problems occur in all early readers, they usually disappear by the end of the first grade.

170     (23) By fourth grade, children with LDs who have not been diagnosed may lag behind their peers by several grade levels, especially in reading. The gaps are puzzling; the children may be able to do tough

175  math equations in their heads or reason through complex questions in science, but make «stupid» mistakes on more elementary material; they may tinker with elec­trical circuitry, computers, and intricate modal kits but never read directions.

(24) Poor memory and difficulties with language affect all aspects of these children's lives. By the time

180 they are in junior or senior high, many students are walking disasters, and they are at their worst in departmentalized settings. They may not be able to understand a roster, find the right classroom, keep five different notebooks, or bring in five different assignments. If they haven't gotten help from an educational

185 therapist trained in learning difficulties, they will find it virtually impossible to handle higher-level reasoning, such as making inferences an associations, rapidly retrieving facts, using sophisticated lan­guage. And when they learn facts in a particular order or con­text, they're lost if they have to use the information in

190 a different way.

(25) The traits common to most dyslexics — forgetfulness, disorganization, and inability to discern verbal or visual cues — affect social behavior as well as academic performance. A child may not be able to

195 follow his mother's directions because his short-term memory is poor. He may be a sore loser simply because he cannot grasp (or, perhaps, remember) the rules of baseball (any more than he can grasp or remember the rules of language), he may talk too loudly or too long or make inap­propriate remarks because

200 he does not comprehend the unwritten rules of conversation. And though disorganized rooms are certainly not unique to children with LDs, very often such external chaos — as well as disheveled clothing, cluttered bookbags, or messy notebooks — is a reflection of inner tur­moil.

205    (26) Emotional problems — from tantrums in the early years to truancy and drug use later on — are a direct result of the learning-disabled child's living life as a «failure». Rarely do children become depressed, give up on schoolwork, or get into trouble because they want to.

210        (27) «We have to remember that children want to please their parents», says Naomi Stine, the special-education coor­dinator at Junior High school 143 in the Bronx, who also has a private practice in

215 Chappaqua and Scarsdale. She acknowl­edges that parents will find it hard to accept the fact that their child has a learning difficulty — but she urges parents to pay attention. «Especially in homes where education is valued», she says, «if a child isn't doing well in school, parents need to find out why».

From the New York magazine, September, 1988.

* «psgetti», for «spaghetti»

* «aminal», for «animal»

 

MAN OF WISDOM

                     by Robert Jastrow

1.                   Starting about one million years ago, the fossil record shows an accelerating growth of the human brain. It expanded at first at the rate of one cubic inch1) of additional gray matter every hundred

5          thousand years; then the growth rate doubled; it doubled again, and finally it doubled once more. Five hundred thousand years ago the rate of growth hit its peak. At that time the brain was expanding at a phenomenal rate of ten cubic inches every hundred thousand years. No other organ in the history of life is known to have grown as fast as this2).

10      2.What pressures generated the explosive growth of the hu­man brain? A change of climate that set in about two million years ago may supply part of the answer. At that time the world began its descent into a great Ice Age, the first to afflict the planet in hundreds of millions of years. The trend toward colder

15      weather set in slowly at first, but after a million years patches of ice began to form in the north. The ice patches thickened into glaciers as more snow fell, and then the glaciers merged into great sheets of ice, as

20      much as two miles thick. When the ice streets reached their maximum extent, they covered two-thirds of the North American continent, all of Britain and a large part of Europe. Many mountain ranges were buried en­tirely. So much water was locked up on the land in the form of ice that the level of the earth's oceans

25      dropped by three hun­dred feet. These events coincided precisely with the period of most rapid expansion of the human brain. Is the coincidence significant, or is it happenstance?

3.The story of human migrations in the last million years provides a clue to the answer. At the beginning

30  of the Ice Age Homo 3) lived near the equator, where the climate was mild and pleasant. Later he moved northward. From his birthplace in Africa 4) he migrated up across the Arabian peninsula and then turned to the north and west into Europe, as well as eastward into Asia.

35         4.When these early migrations took place, the ice was still confined to the lands in the far north; but eight hundred thou­sand years ago, when man was already established in the tem­perate latitudes, the ice moved southward until it covered large parts of Europe and Asia. Now, for the first time, men en­countered the

40      bone-chilling blasts of freezing winds that blew off the cakes of ice to the north. The climate in southern Eu­rope had a Siberian harshness then, and summers were nearly as cold as European winters are today.

5.In those difficult times, the traits of resourcefulness and ingenuity must have been of premium value.

45      Which individual first thought of stripping the pelt from the slaughtered beast to wrap around his shivering limbs? Only by such inven­tive flights of the imagination could the naked animal survive a harsh climate. In every generation, the individuals endowed with the attributes of strength, courage, and improvisation were

50      the ones more likely to survive the rigors of the Ice Age; those who were less resourceful, and lacked the vision of their fel­lows, fell victims to the climate and their numbers were re­duced.

54           6.The Ice Age winter was the most devastating challenge that Homo had ever faced. He was naked and defenseless against the cold, as the little mammals had been defenseless against the dinosaurs one hundred million years ago. Vulnerable to the pressures of a hostile world, both animals were forced to live by their

60      wits; and both became, in their time, the brainiest animals of the day.

7.The tool-making industry of early man also stimulated the growth of the brain. The possession of a good brain had been one of the factors that enabled Homo to make tools at the start. But the use of tools

65      became, in turn, a driving force toward the evolution of an even better brain. The characteris­tics of good memory, foresight, and innovativeness that were needed for tool-making varied in strength from one individual to another. Those who possessed them in the greatest degree were the practical heroes of their

70      day; they were likely to survive and prosper, while the individuals who lacked them were more likely to succumb to the pressures of the environment. Again these circumstances pruned the human stock, expand­ing the centers of the brain in which past ex periences were recorded, future actions were contemplated,

75      and new ideas were conceived. As a result, from generation to generation the brain grew larger.

8.The evolution of speech may have been the most impor­tant factor of all. When early man mastered the

80      loom of language, his progress accelerated dramatically. Through the spoken word a new invention in tool-making, for example, could be communicated to everyone; this way the innovativeness of the individual enhanced the survival prospects of his fellows, and the creative strength of one became the strength of all.

85      More important, through language the ideas of one generation could be passed on to the next, so that each generation inher­ited not only the genes of its ancestors but also their collective wisdom, transmitted through the magic of speech.

9.A million years ago, when this magic was not yet perfec­ted, and language was a cruder art, those

90     bands of men who possessed the new gift in the highest degree were strongly fa­vored in the struggle for existence. But the fabric of speech is woven out of many threads. The physical attributes of a voice box, lips, and tongue were among the necessary traits; but a good brain was also essential, to frame an abstract

95      thought or represent an object by a word.

10. Now the law of the survival of the fittest began to work on the population of early men. Steadily, the physical appara­tus for speech improved. At the same time, the centers of the brain devoted to speech grew

100 in size and complexity, and in the course of many generations the whole brain grew with them. Once more, as with the use of tools, reciprocal forces came into play in which speech stimulated better brains, and brains improved the art of speech, and the curve of brain growth spiraled upward.  

105            11 .Which factor played the most important role in the evo­lution of human intelligence? Was it the pressure of the Ice-Age climate? Or tools? Or language? No one can tell, all worked together, through

110  Darwin's 5) law of natural selection, to pro­duce the dramatic increase in the size of the brain that has been recorded in the fossil record in the last million years. The brain reached its present size about one hundred thousand years ago, and its growth ceased. Man's body had been shaped into its modem form several

115  hundred thousand years before that. Now brain and body were complete. Together they made a new and marvelous creature, charged with power, intelligence, and creative energy. His wits had been honed by the fight against hunger, cold, and the natural enemy; his form had been molded in the crucible of adversity. In

120  the annals of an­thropology his arrival is celebrated by a change in name, from Homo erectus-the Man who stands erect-to Homo sapiens-the Man of wisdom.

12.The story of man's creation nears an end. In the begin­ning there was light; then a dark cloud

125 appeared, and made the sun and earth. The earth grew warmer; its body exhaled moisture and gases; water collected on the surface; soon the first molecules struggled across the threshold of life. Some survived; others perished; and the law of Darwin began its work. The pressures of the environment acted ceaselessly, and the forms of life improved.

130     13.The changes were imperceptible from one generation to the next. No creature was aware of its role in the larger drama; all felt only the pleasure and pain of existence; and life and death were devoid of a greater meaning.

135      14.But to the human observer, looking back on the history of life from the perspective of many eons, a meaning becomes evident. He sees that through the struggle against the forces of adversity, each generation molds the shapes of its descendants. Adversity and struggle lie at the root of evolutionary progress.

140  Without adversity there is no pressure; without pressure there is no change.

15.These circumstances, so painful to the individual, cre­ate the great currents that carry life forward from the simple to the complex. Finally, man stands on the earth, more per­fect than any other. Intelligent,

145 self-aware, he alone among all creatures has the curiosity to ask: how did I come into being? What forces have created me? And, guided by his sci­entific knowledge, he comes to the realization that he was created by all who came before him, through their struggle against adversity.

1) One cubic inch is a heaping tablespoonful. [Author's foot­note].

2) If the brain had continued to expand at the same rate, men would be far brainier today than they actually are. But after several hundred thousand years of very rapid growth the expansion of the brain slowed down and in the last one hun­dred thousand years it has not changed in size at all. [Author's footnote].

3) Latin for «man».

4) Until recently, the consensus among anthropologists pla­ced the origin of man in Africa. However, some recent evidence suggests that Asia may have been his birthplace.

[Author's footnote].

5) British naturalist Charles Darwin ( 1809-1882 ) theo­rized that all species of life evolved from lower forms through «natural selection».

From: Thomas Cooley, The Norton Sampler, 1979.

 

JAPANESE EDUCATION

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

by Thomas P. Rohlen

1.                   Contemporary Japan is about as developed and organized a society as one can find in the world today. It is a society where educational credentials and educated skills are central to employment, to

5          promotion,and to social status in general. It is not a society with a privileged traditional class, nor is it one divided between a small, educated elite and the masses. Rather, the modern sectors of Japan's economy require the skilled participation of nearly all Japanese. Furthermore, Ja­pan is a «meritocracy» shaped by an

10      educational competition that enrolls nearly everyone. And this is fitting, for Japan is a nation that, lacking natural resources, must live by its wits, by social discipline, and by plain hard work.

2.It is not surprising, therefore, to discover that during the last twenty years Japan has quietly been

15      establishing a new, higher set of educational standards for the world. On a whole raft of international tests of achievement in science and math, Japanese students outperform all others. Japan's newspaper readership

20      level is the world's highest. A considerably larger percentage of Japanese (90 percent) than Americans (75 percent) or Europeans (mostly below 50 percent) finish the twelfth grade, and greater proportion of males complete university B.A. degrees in Japan than in other countries. Japanese children attend school about

25      fifty more days each year than American students, which means that, by high-school graduation, they have been in school somewhere between three and four more years than their American counterparts. Added to this is the fact that requirements in all basic subjects are heavier in Japan and that elementary-level education in art and music is univer­sal and quite advanced. No one now denies that this is a most

30      impressive portrait of national achievement. Japan has suc­ceeded in holding very high standards for virtually its entire population, standards typical of elites in Western countries. It would not be an exaggeration to say that in many respects the upper half of Japan's graduating high-school students possess

35      a level of knowledge and the analytic skills equivalent to the average American graduating from college. Until several years ago, we hardly noted these accomplishments, and the Japa­nese themselves never

40      boasted of them but rather emphasized the costs incurred in achieving such success. One simple fact cannot be ignored: Japanese education to the college level has been made into an extraordinarily efficient engine for eco­nomic and social advancement. Japan's standards are becom­ing ours through the agency of free trade.

3.Consider the following sobering comparisons:

TOTAL EDUCATION EXPENDITURE AS A PERCENTAGE OF GNP

 

FOUR-YEAR-OLDS ATTENDING SCHOOL

 

STUDENTS GRADUATING FROM TWELFTH GRADE

 

AVERAGE DAILY HOURS OF HOMEWORK DURING HIGH SCHOOL

 

DAILY ABSENTEE RATE

 

 

JAPAN

UNITED STATES

 

JAPAN

UNITED STATES

 

JAPAN

UNITED STATES

 

JAPAN

UNITED STATES

 

JAPAN

UNITED STATES

 

6%

7%

 

63%

32%

 

90%

77%

 

2.0

0.5

 

VERY LOW

9%

 

45      4.What explains this level of accomplishment? In the background most certainly are such things as the long-standing respect for education held by the Japanese and the traditional view that diligence in school is a path to greatness. It is also true that Japanese society contains fewer social problems of the kind that

50      make mass public education difficult. The country has few immigrants and few minorities. The divorce and unemployment rates are quite low. Drug problems are mini­mal, and juvenile delinquency is not as serious a problem as in this country. Such profound social differences raise the ques­tion of whether our schools and

55      teachers might not produce results equal to Japan's if only they had the same kind of student population. In my opinion, the gap in results between the Japanese and American system would shrink considerably. Acknowledging this, however, does not change the fact of Japan's challenge, nor does it remove from

60      serious consideration the question of whether there is much to be learned from Japan's approach.

5.Another explanation for the success of Japanese schools centers on the firm hand of the national

65  Ministry of Education in setting standards and curriculum for the country. Standards serve as foundations for the entire effort, and the standards applied are equivalent to those used for elite education in the United States and Europe. I will return to this topic when we consider what might be learned from Japan.

70          6.Very important, too, is the motivation that stems from the nation's very competitive university entrance exams. Pick up any of Japan's national newsmagazines in early spring, and you are certain to find the lead story to be about these exami­nations. For a brief time each year the ordeal of getting into college surpasses

75      political scandals, international economic problems, and gossip about entertainers as the matter most inter­esting and important to the reading public. Imagine Time and Newsweek each publishing thirty or so pages of statistics docu­menting the secondary school origins of new entrants to hun­dreds of universities, along

80      with details of the tests, competition ratios, and no table study techniques. All this attention (and anxiety) attests to the centrality of entrance examinations to Japanese society. Schooling is geared to it, jobs are based on it, and families are preoccupied with it. The obsession with entrance exams' is like a dark engine

85      powering the entire school system. High national standards and entrance exams combine with a great popular thirst for the benefits of education.

7.Economic prosperity has greatly bolstered the demand for education — and the level of

90      competitiveness — beyond the imagination of Americans. Accession rates to Japanese high schools and universities have increased rapidly over the last quarter century. In 1950, only 43 percent of all fifteen-year-olds were going on to high school, whereas by 1975 the figure had risen to 98 percent. In 1950, only 7

95      percent of college-age Japanese enrolled in higher education; today more than 40 percent are going on to universities or junior colleges. The university population has swollen from about half a million in 1950 to nearly two million. Universities are clearly overcrowded and the quality of education has suffered greatly.

100  Only at the levels of higher and graduate education does our system stand out as comparatively strong.

8.Despite such problems, the ratio of candidates to open­ings at almost any Japanese university starts at 3 to I and rises to an average of 5 to I. Many private universities attract eight or nine candidates per opening,

105 and competition to gain entrance to departments that lead to degrees in medicine regu­larly reaches a ratio of 20 to 1. The national total of applicant, furthermore, annually exceeds the number of university open­ings by approximately 200,000. The competition has grown excessive.

110          9. Many who fail to enter the school of their choice decide to try again. They join a particular category of students who have graduated from high school but have not yet entered col­lege. The main occupation of

115  this group is cramming for the next annual round of entrance examinations. (As with the ancient Chinese exam system, there is no limit on how many times one may try and no age limit on applications). Known as ronin because they are akin to the wandering, disenfranchised warrior-heroes made familiar by samurai

120  movies, these stu­dents are very largely male and usually academically talented. Attracted to the best universities, they prefer to persevere even for several years rather than to accept a place at a lesser univer­sity. Their lonely pursuit of fame and glory is often romanti­cized, but, in fact, it is a dreary, expensive

125  existence. The annual ronin population is estimated at 140,000 young people, and approximately one in every five male high-school gradu­ates is fated to join this particular detour in the system. At the prestigious Tokyo University, roughly half of the successful applicants enter on the first try, one-third on the second,

130 and 10 percent after three or more tries. Each year someone succeeds on his sixth or seventh attempt.

10.What kinds of examinations are involved? Composed almost entirely of multiple-choice and short-answer questions, the exams are designed to test (1) the comprehension of math­ematical (highschool math

135 goes beyond trigonometry) and scientific principles (physics, chemistry, biology, and earth sci­ences are required), and (2) the mastery of enormous bodies of factual material. Economics, geography, history (European, Japanese, Chinese, and United States), and English (six years) are required subjects. Every

140 question has but one correct answer. Interpretive skills are not tested, but skills in math and science problem solving are important, and the degree of de­tailed knowledge required can be astounding. The level of fac­tual knowledge necessary in the history sections of the exams for the best universities would tax

145 American graduate students. In sum, the exams are of the kind for which a capacity to grind away for years in preparation makes a difference. Intelligence is quite necessary, but self-discipline and willpower are equally essential. Furthermore, only the exam results count toward admission. Highschool grades,

150 extracurricular activities, teachers' recommendations, and special talents play virtually no role, except in a very small percentags of experimental cases. It is hard to estimate just what percentage of all the energy ex­pended is wasted on useless cramming, but it is consequential.

155     11. Nothing better illustrates the pressure to begin preparations early than the popularity of cram schools, or juku, which today enroll one in three middle-school students and one in four upper-elementary-school students across Japan. In Tokyo and other large cities, fully two-thirds of all seventh, eighth, and ninth

160  graders are either attending cram schools or being tutored at home. Juku are privately run, after-school acad­emies designed to supplement public education. There are juku for slow students, juku for average students, and juku for bright students, in part because the public system has no gifted pro­grams, eschews

165  tracking within schools, and offers no individually paced learning. The typical tutoring establishment in­volves instruction for a couple of hours a few days a week, but the more aggressive and fast-paced cram schools hold classes more regularly, even on weekends and during vacations. Juku, like tactical weapons in

170  an escalating educational arms race, have become a booming growth industry complete with fran­chising and educational conglomerates. Private entrepreneur-ship, parental anxiety, and exam pressures combine to create an unprecedented phenomenon that critics feel threatens to make Japanese childhood nothing but a

175  tightly scheduled existence shuttling from home to school to juku, with no time for friends or play.

12.Is the effort to enter a top university worth it? Clearly, the extraordinary thirst for educational

180 success is based on the knowl­edge that good jobs and adult success hinge greatly on one's alma mater. What is crucial is getting in. In fact, most humanities and social science students, upon gaining entry to a university, take a one- or two-year holiday from serious study as a reward for com­pleting the entrance exam ordeal. No one flunks out.

185      13. Just how dominant the top schools have been in supplying the country's managerial elite can be seen from a few notable statistics. Tokyo University, which accounts for less than 3 per­cent of all university graduates, alone pro duces nearly a quarter of the presidents of Japan's leading companies. The picture of

190 elite dominance is even more pronounced in the upper level of the national bureaucracy, where Tokyo graduates have occupied the majority of jobs and nearly all the top positions during the last century. Much the same picture emerges from the nation's elected representatives. In the Lower House of the national Diet,

195 one in four is a Tokyo graduate. The point should be clear that success on entrance exams is associated with career success, and ulti­mately with power and status. Even if it takes a few extra years as ronin to finally enter a top school, the opportunities and ultimate rewards make the sacrifices worth the effort.

200     14.The powerful engine of exam preparation is fueled by this rather tight calibration between academic and career suc­cess. Those wishing to reform Japanese education realize that they must ease the tight relationship with employment before the exam system's hold will be weakened. Many privately fear,

205  however, that without future employment as the driving motive of entrance exam competition, students, parents, and schools would slacken their efforts, and the present high stan­dards in basic subjects would begin to fall.

15. Competition requires equal opportunity to be inclusive. Up to high school, the Japanese system

210 offers a greater basic equality than American reformers have dreamed possible. This is accomplished primarily by a system of prefectural and na­tional financing that equalizes salaries and facilities. Schools are not tracked by ability, and the number of private schools is small. At the point of high-school entrance,

215 however, the separation of students by ability begins in earnest. High schools, like universities, are entered by examinations. This produces and perpetuates a system of school ranking that is more thor­ough than anything in American public education. The ques­tion of where the ablest students go, where the least able

220 go, and all of the fine shadings in between can be recounted by any student or parent of the region, for each city or prefecture has a single totem pole. In a number of areas, private schools have risen to the top as a result of the greater latitude they enjoy in collecting the best students and gearing singlemindedly to

225 success on the university exams, yet in most areas public schools remain very strong. Successful applicants to Tokyo University are now equally divided between public and private schools. After nine years of equal

230 opportunity, the system is differentiated and competition produces an elaborate hierarchy. The system has the character of a true meritocracy.

16.The ranking of schools becomes a sensitive yardstick to measure the degree to which family

235 background factors influ­ence educational outcomes. My own studies reveal a trend toward a greater role for family factors in educational out-235 comes. Entrants to the elite national Japanese universities in the early sixties came from a broad cross section of the popu­lation with little relationship between income and success. Private universities (more expensive and easier to enter), on the other hand, were filled primarily

240 by students from families in the upper half of the income scale. By the mid-1970s, a significant shift was perceptible, with fewer and fewer students from poor families entering the elite universities. A major rea­son, I think, is the rising significance of privately purchased advantages in the preparation process

245 namely, juku and elite private high schools.

17. I recently investigated five Kobe high schools chosen as representative of five distinct levels in that city's hierarchy of secondary schools. So that the reader can better appreciate the quality represented by

250 each of the five schools, let me add that the private elite school I studied sends more than one hundred of its two hundred and fifty graduates to Tokyo University each year, whereas the second and third-rank public academic high schools (each considered quite good locally) send but a handful of their students to

255 any national university. Very few vocational school students go on to higher education at all. Dropout rates for the night school are about 25 percent. The results of my study indicate a number of very strong associations between school rank (and, therefore, academic achieve­ment as measured by entrance exams) and a host of such family background factors as parents' education and occupation, the number of siblings,

260 and family income. Family qualities may be influential from an early point in the child's schooling, but only with high school entrance does the overt sorting take place. Japan, like the United States, has a school

265 system that partially replicates the status and class system of its adults, but it does this without residential segregation.

18. Not only does the school system at the high-school level reflect difference of family backgrounds,

270 but, by its very organi­zation, it undoubtedly extends and elaborates these differences through the creation of distinct, stratified school sub-cultures. Delinquency rates, for example, correlate closely with the aca­demic rank of high schools. Entrance exams thus serve some­thing of an analogous function to residential

275 segregation in the United States. Japanese cities remain residentially heterogeneous, but the competitive entrance-exam system (and its parasite — the cram system) supersedes residential location (and thus housing expenditures) as the key to climbing the social ladder.

19.The issue of inequality between the sexes is also very interesting. Slightly more women than men

280 now enter institutions of higher learning, but this is explained largely by the rapid growth of junior colleges whose enrollments are 90 per­cent female. The percentage of women enrolled in four-year universities did increase from 16.2 percent in 1965 to 21.2 percent in 1975, yet the fact remains that in higher education

285 three of every five females are atten ding a junior college, whereas nine of every ten males in higher education are in four-year universities. Furthermore, in Japan's top universities the per­centage of women has remained very small. Only about 6 per­cent of those accepted to Tokyo University are women. None of

290 this, it must be emphasized, stems from overt discrimina­tion in the admission process. The simple fact is that many fewer women apply. In 1975, only 17 percent of the women graduating from high school applied

295 to universities, whereas 52 percent of the men applied. Only an understanding of the cultural attitudes prevalent in Japanese families can explain this pattern.

Let me summarize what I see to be the advantages and disadvantages in the above portrait. What

300 distinguishes Japa­nese education is a very high average level of accomplishment. This seems to stem above all from diligence and organization, from an orderly single-mindedness, and an exceptional educa­tion «fever» centering on exams — the very same qualities that characterize Japanese industrial process. Initial

305 equality and well-organized and well-supported schools are followed by a competitively determined sorting process that, by our stan­dards, comes early. Preparing for exams creates a narrowness of focus in learning and emphasizes rote processes. The meritocratic process has few exceptions and offers too few sec­ond

310 chances. It is tough to be a loser. As we might expect, education and society share some of the same deficiencies. To us Japan seems like an anthill, busy, well-organized, and com­petitive, but unable to foster individual expression or to sup­port idiosyncratic or uncommon talents. Both society and edu­cation suffer

315 from very rapid growth and from an obsessive preoccupation with success as measured by rather mechanical «output» standards. Their very efficiencies mask problems of unattended spiritual values and national identity.

From: The American Scholar. 1986.

 

GREEN BRIEFS AND TOXIC TORTS

 

EDUCATING LAWYERS

WITH ENVIRONMENTAL SAVVY

by Robert V.Percival

Robert V. Percival is an associate professor of law and di­rector of the Environmental Law Program at the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore, Maryland.

l.On a bitterly cold afternoon in late January, hundreds of law students from across the United States gathered in Bloomington, Indiana, for what has become an annual cel­ebration. What students at the Sixth

5          Annual Conference of the National Association of Environmental Law Societies (NAELS) were celebrating was the phenomenal growth of student con­cern for the environment. NAELS had been founded in 1988, when the University of Michigan's Environmental Law Soci­ety invited students from other law

10      schools to a conference on environmental law. The conference organizers were astounded when nearly 200 students from 51 law schools responded to their invitation to what became the first NAELS conference. In the five years since that conference, student interest in en­vironmental law has grown into a catalyst for

15      change in legal education. Environmental law is now capturing a prominent place in law school curricula. In a sharp departure from legal education's traditional resistance to specialization, many law schools are

20      creating specialized environmental programs and offering concentrations or advanced degrees in environmental law. These changes in legal education are likely to affect greatly the next generation of environmental professionals.

I The Rise of Student Interest

2.      It is not hard to find signs of the surge in student interest in environmental law. Anyone who teaches

25      in the field can confirm that its popularity has increased dramatically in recent years. Surveys by the author and by the American Association of Law School's (AALS's) section on environmental law have shown that this surge is having a huge impact on the curricula of law schools nationwide. The basic environmental law

30      course, formerly considered a specialty offering that may have attracted some 30 to 40 students, is now viewed at most schools as an essential element of the mainstream curriculum, and it fre­quently attracts more than 100 students. Most law schools now offer several environmental courses, and many are expanding their environmental offerings.

35          3. Before examining these changes in detail, it is important to consider what is generating the surge in student interest in environmental law. Much of it is a product of the rapid growth in federal environmental regulation, which has expanded the demand for environmental lawyers. When Congress

40      established the first national regulatory programs to protect the environ­ment in the early 1970s-including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1970, the 1970 amendments to the Clean Air Act, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amend­ments of 1972, the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control

45      Act of 1972, the Ocean Dumping Act of 1972, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974-a new legal specialty was born for which few practicing lawyers were well prepared. This void generated an initial burst of growth in environmental education in law schools (see Figure 1 on

50      page 224). For example, the AALS directories show that, between 1971 and 1975, law schools increased their environ­mental course offerings by 52 percent (from 111 to 169) and the number of fulltime faculty

56      teaching such courses rose 47 percent (from 109 to 160). As environmental law matured and businesses became more accustomed to regulation, the impact of the initial surge in demand for environmental lawyers less­ened. Between 1975 and 1986, the number of environmental courses in law schools declined slightly, as many specialized seminars became regular environmental courses.

60         4.In the late 1980s, law schools again responded to an ex­traordinary new burst of student interest in environmental law. In the last six years, there has been a 69-percent increase in the number of environmental courses taught by full-time fac­ulty in law schools and a 60-percent increase in the number

65      of faculty teaching such courses. In just the last three academic years, the number of environmental courses has increased by 48 percent, and the number of full-time faculty teaching such courses has increased by 40

70      percent. As a result, the growth of environmental courses and faculty has substantially outpaced growth in law school enrollments (see Figures 2 and 3 on pages 225 and 226). The number of students enrolled at law schools approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) increased by 43 percent from 1971 to 1992, but

75      the number of environmen­tal courses at law schools increased by 138 percent. In the 1986 academic year, there were only 1.27 environmental courses per 1,000 students en rolled in ABA-approved law schools, but, by 1992, there were 1.93 courses per 1,000 students. Although the number of ABA-approved law

80      schools increased by less than 20 percent from 1971 to 1992 (from 147 to 176), the number of full-time law school faculty teaching environmental law in­creased by nearly 120 percent (from 109 to 238). In 1986, there were only 0.85 full-time environmental faculty per school, but, by 1992, this ratio had risen to 1.35.

 


 

85          5. Furthermore, even these impressive data may understate the actual increase because many schools have responded to the increased demand for environmental courses by hiring ad­juncts to teach additional environmental courses. These courses and faculty are not included in AALS data because the AALS

90      directory includes only full-time faculty. Moreover, information about the number of environmental courses or teachers does not reflect the perceived increases in the sizes of environ­mental classes.

6.The most recent surge of interest in environmental law appears to be the product of several factors.

95      Environmental regulation is not only continuing its rapid growth but also as­suming considerable importance in new contexts, such as real estate, insurance, and international business transactions. A new generation of students reared at a time of increased environmental consciousness feels strongly about the

100  importance of protecting the environment. Hugh Marbury, a law student at Vanderbilt Universiry, describes environmental protection as «a civic responsibility and the right thing to do» Paul White, a law student at the University of South Carolina, states that environmental law was a «logical choice» for him

105  because his parents taught him to have a strong sense of «respect for nature and life». At a time when employment opportunities are shrink­ing in several other areas of law, many students believe that environmental law will provide not only a meaningful job but also one with prospects for a bright future.

110  Martin LaLonde, a University of Michigan law student, explains that he «became interested in environmental law because I wanted to do a job that was meaningful». Mary Raivel, a University of

115  Maryland law student currently working at the US Environmental Pro­tection Agency (EPA), says that she was attracted to environmental law because it «seemed the best way to combine my interest in law with my concern for the well-being of future generations».

7. Many professors believe that the job market, rather than increased student altruism, explains much of

120 the surge of student interest in environmemal law. Because environmental law has been one of the fastest growing legal specialties, it is at­tracting some students more interested in jobs than in saving the world. Ronald Rosenberg of the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary notes that his

125 «students are immensely sophisticated about what law firms want». Many who plan careers in business law now realize that environmen­tal law has become important in broad areas of commercial practice. As a result, a broader cross-section of students is show­ing up in environmental law courses. Randy Abate, a

130 professor  at  Vermont Law School, notes  that  students  there «no  longer  automatically  choose  the environmental side» in environmen­tal moot court competitions.

8. Although students are pleased that environmental regula tion has increased employment opportunities

135  for lawyers, they also recognize that an increase in environmental lawyers is not the answer to environmental problems. Fred Turner, an Indi­ana University law student who served as director of the 1993 NAELS conference, observes that «the best thing would be if we didn't have to have environmental

140  law at all-if people were smart and compassionate enough» to prevent environmental problems from occurring. Noting that it is «unrealistic» to think that environmental lawyers can «save the world», Martin LaLonde observes, «I'd like to try» to at least point the world in the right direction».

II Changes in Teaching

145            l. In response to the enormous increase in student interest, significant changes are occurring in the teaching of environmen­tal law. In 1989, Joseph Sax of the University of Michigan, one of the pioneer teachers of environmental law, surveyed the field and found widespread frustration that environmental

150  was law increasingly divorced from the concerns that inspired the environmental movement. Although most of the factors that contributed to Sax's pessimism have not fundamentally changed, environmental law professors appear decidedly more upbeat today. They concede that the field has become vast and

155  overwhelmingly complex, but they are generally pleased with their subject's unprecedented popu­larity, and many delight in responding to its pedagogic challenges. Frank Grad of Columbia University finds teaching environmen tal law «enormously challenging», but he does not share any sense of «tired blood». He

160  believes the field «has now reached maturity», «is thriving», and has made enormous contributions to the development of administrative and public-interest law.

2. A source of some professors' frustration has been the rapid growth in the breadth and complexity of

165  environmental law, which shows no sign of abating. After mastering NEPA, the initial generation of environmental law professors was repeatedly forced to tackle new and more complex regulatory statutes. Denis Binder of Western New England College, who has taught a survey course in environmental law more than two dozen times, laments its evolution «from a wide-open, free-spirited search for innovative

170  legal answers, into a statutory, administrative law regime». Daniel Farber of the University of Minnesota believes that the key in­sight of Sax's study «was that most environmental law teachers find the actual legal content of the course tedious and wish they didn't have to talk about so many technical statutory issues» -a

175  factor that Farber thinks unfortunately is «just the nature of the beast».

3.Some professors revel in the challenge of teaching such a difficult course. «Let the folks who want to

180 get a course "down" teach trusts and estates», advises Oliver Houck ofTulane University, a veteran environmental law professor who remains «delighted by the challenge of teaching environmental law». Houck states that he would «have it no other way but very difficult and always new». Houck's sentiments

185 are echoed by Susan Smith of Willamette University, who has found «teaching environmental law, like

      practicing environmental law, to be fun and a constant source of stimulation and growth».

4.There is wide agreement, to be sure, that the breadth and complexity of the field present serious

190 pedagogic problems, particularly for the traditional survey course in environmental law, «Complexity   makes it more of a challenge to teachers and also more work for us», says Frank Grad. «What has also happened is that environmental law has begun to matter in other fields, as in bankruptcy and insurance

195 law».Another pioneer environmental law teacher, Arnold W. Reitze, Jr., of George Washington University's National Law Center, notes that law­yers practicing in the field now frequently identify themselves not as «environmental lawyers» but, rather, as specialists on «air pollution, hazardous waste, or

200 CERCLA [Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act]». These developments make it extremely difficult to provide com­prehensive coverage of environmental law in a survey course. As John Costonis, the dean of Vanderbilt's law school, says, «The material is too dense, too complex, and too massive to be contained within any single course».

205            5.Professors who believe that a survey course remains es­sential have responded to this challenge by seeking to identify cross-cutting themes that can tie together what otherwise might seem a diverse statutory

210  jumble. An increasingly popular ap­proach is to emphasize theories of regulation and to use particular statutory schemes to illustrate their application. David A. Wirth of Washington & Lee University finds that this ap­proach avoids the pitfall of treating environmental law as a series of relatively trivial questions of

215  statutory interpretation. Another approach is to emphasize problem solving. Describing the field as «just impossibly broad», Zygmunt Plater, a profes­sor at Boston College, emphasizes the «craft oflawyering rather than the subject matter» of the environmental statutes. Plater believes that it is important to use

220  environmental law to give students a sense of how to analyze problems. But noting that «everyone has to compromise» in their coverage, he advises that «the compromise avenue that fits the idiosyncracies of the individual professor is what works best».

6.Some professors who believe that environmental law is too unwieldy to fit in a single survey course

225 have split the subject into two or more course offerings. Robert Fischman reports that Indiana University has replaced the survey course with an environmental decisionmaking course followed by a separate course on the law governing toxic and hazardous sub­stances. In similar fashion, Harrison Dunning of the

230 University of California at Davis now reserves hazardous waste and toxics issues for a separate course called Toxics Law. Alyson Flournoy reports that the University of Florida has split the survey course into two: one treating water, wetlands, and wild­life issues and a second that covers toxics, wastes, and NEPA.

235 These courses are taught by different faculty members, whose areas of interest and experience are now more closely tailored to the subjects covered in the courses.

7. Other factors also are cited as reasons for renewed opti­mism about the teaching of environmental law.

240  Robert Abrams of Wayne State University believes that better teaching materials are available now that a second generation of environmental law textbooks has been published. He also thinks that the field has acquired a «feel of stability» as new statutes build upon prin­ciples that are already well established.

245  Richard Lazarus of the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis attributes renewed optimism to the appearance of a new generation of law professors who are less anxious about the field's complexities because of their substantial experience in environmental prac­tice. Indeed, there has been a substantial

250  influx of new teachers into the environmental field, particularly since 1987 (see Figure 4 on 231 page). Greater efforts also are being made to assist new teachers. The AALS section on environmental law has estab­lished a mentor program that has enlisted more than 30 experi­enced teachers of environmental law to

255  provide help to young faculty. It is unclear, however, how much impact this program has had; the only professor who mentioned the mentor program in the author's survey had volunteered as a mentor but stated that he had not received any calls asking for assistance.

260      8. The growth of specialized environmental programs in law schools also has increased the comfort level of many profes­sors by making them less concerned about coverage tradeoffs. John Dwyer of the University of California at Berkeley's law school, Boalt Hall, states that his school's extensive environ­mental program

265  means that «there is little pressure for coverage' in a basic environmental law course and greater freedom to teach concepts and ideas». William Funk of the Northwest­ern School of Law of Lewis & dark College explains that, at a school with a substantial environmental program, «no one course (or professor) has to

270  feel responsible for covering the whole area or deciding what substantively or methodologically to leave out».

9.Many professors take comfort in the growing importance of the discipline, and some express the

275  sense of mission. Zygmunt Plater says that environmental law «is a course that must be taught-it's critically important for the survival of our species». Here, the «legal system is doing the work of the angels», and professors must «teach students how to make our society work — to find solutions to truly difficult prob

280  lems». Mare Poirer of Seton Hall University finds existential ground for inspiration. While conceding that the «underlying pollution and resourse management problems may well be intractable», he notes that because, «in the long run, life is sort of hopeless anyway,... one can appreciate the interesting details and find inspiration in the midst of all chaos».

III The Impacts of Specialization

285      l.The explosive growth of the market for environmental lawyers appears to be eroding legal education's traditional re­sistance to specialization. As a result, many law schools are creating what Michael Baram

290  of Boston University describes as «essentially mini law schools» focusing on environmental courses. Baram believes that this is a logical response to the fact that environmental law has become such an «unwieldy field» and that it will permit schools to «begin to rationalize what we're doing in the field». As

295  legal education comes under increasing fire for being too divorced from developments in the legal profession the changes undertaken by law schools in response to environmental concerns will be greeted by many as a refreshing step forward.

2.Not everyone, however, is convinced that increased spe cialization in the law school curriculum is

300 desirable. While recognizing that law school graduates who go into the environ­mental field «will face an enormous early challenge», John Costonis of Vanderbilt believes that it is possible to produce «first-rate lawyers who can deal with any problem environ­mental or whatever» — with out having a specialized

305 environmental program. Emphasizing that the role of law schools is to train «law students, not lawyers», Susan Smith of Willamette University thinks that, specialization at the J.D. level should be resisted because «environmental law changes too quickly to risk making anyone into a specialist. While lawyers may

310 develop specialties in their practice, they will also need to be able со readily retool, which is best accomplished by a generalist J.D. without overconcentration in any field of practice, much less any subfield

315 of practice». Smith forecasts that «trends to­ward integrated pollution control, pollution prevention, and risk assessment» may counsel against specialization because there may arrive «a new generation of oldschool lawyers who are counselors to businesses..... rather than legal technicians».

3.Law school have discovered that the development of spe­cialized programs can have a significant

320 effect on the types of students attracted to law school. Schools, such as the Univer­sity of Maryland, that have not been considered among the top national law schools have found that, by developing special­ized programs in health law and environmental law, they have been able to attract a significantly higher-quality

325 student body. Increased specialization also has brought changes in faculty recruitment practices. Many law schools that traditionally had refused to recruit for specific subject matter «slots» except in fields like tax law are finding that environmental law has be­come such a specialized field that it makes sense to seek our

330 faculty with experience in environmental practice. Increased specialization also may have other, more subtle consequences on law school faculties. Ronald Rosenberg of William & Mary notes that, as law gets more specialized, there is increasing isolation among faculty members whose colleagues are less able to

335 critique or understand their work. Seton Hall's Marc Poirer agrees and argues that it is becoming more important for envi­ronmental law professors to communicate with environmental faculty at other schools.

340            4. Specialization requires a substantial commitment of resources, which may be difficult for schools in times of fiscal stringency. As a result, many schools are relying heavly on adjuncts to teach specialized environmental courses. Although some professors express concern that practitioners will bury students in

345  minutia, Arnold Reitze of George Washington University doubts, given the complexity of the environmental field, that «any law school could afford to use only full-time faculty» to offer a comprehensive environmental law program. He notes that it is easier to find qualified adjuncts in the

350  Wash­ington, D.C. area because so much environmental practice takes place there.

 

IV Interdisciplinary Studies

1.Many environmental law professors agree that more ef­fort needs to be directed to curricular reform of interdiscipli­nary studies. Given the importance of science and economics in environmental policy

355 controversies, many agree that it would be desirable for environmental law students to acquire more familiarity with other disciplines. Richard Merrill of the Uni­versity of Virginia notes that, «in most environmental law fields, lawyers don't work only, or even chiefly, with other lawyers; they work with

360 scientists and engineers. We ought to expose students to this reality in a coherent way» William H. Rodgers, Jr., of the University of Washington in Seattle says that the «issues of global change are threatening to make a shambles of traditional disciplinary demarcations», and Craig Oren wonders «if our

365 students acquire any notion of how science fits into public policy formulation». He fears that a lot of them think of science as kind of a black box from which data emerge».

2.      Many law schools allow their students to receive credit for a limited number of courses taken in

370  other departments. Although professors report that a few brave students interested in environmental law take courses in other subjects, such as epidemiology or environmental science, the number of stu­dents doing so does not appear to be very significant. More­over, such courses are not truly interdisciplinary

375  because they do not attempt to integrate insights and concepts from more than one discipline.

3.There appear to be substantial institutional barriers to suc­cessful interdisciplinary work, including

380 incompatible academic calendars, the geographic isolation between some law schools and the relevant university departments, and schools' unwill­ingness to give professors credit for teaching in other depart­ments. Boston University professor Michael Baram cites the fact that the «culture of law schools is so

385 formalized and rule-bound» as a barrier to inrerdisciplinary work. Wishing for a «nearby school of public health», Richard Merrill notes that Virginia's «environmental sciences program is ecosystem fo­cused while lawyers are human— health focused».

3.      Some efforts are under way to increase the exposure of environmental law students.to other

390  disciplines. Professors report an increase in the number of non-law students taking environmental law courses. Baram, who has a joint appoint­ment between Boston University's law school and its School of Public Health, says that approximately 20 percent of his environmental law students are from other

395  university departments. The nonlaw students in his environmental courses wri­te a term paper instead of taking an exam and are graded under the criteria established by their departments. Some law profes­sors are teaching environmental courses in other departments. Boston College has a team-taught environmental law

400  seminar offered in the political science department that, Zygmunt Plater says, has received an «electrifying response».

5.Some law schools have established close connections with a particular university department, such as

405 Yale's School of Forestry, Michigan's School of Natural Resources, and Berkeley's School of Public Policy. Although, in theory, it is possible for students at most schools to combine a law degree with a degree in another discipline, in practice, it is not done very frequently except for joint law-business J.D.—

410 M.B.A. programs. Ten University of Michigan law students are currently pursuing joint degrees with the university's School of Natural Resources, and several Indiana University law stu­dents are enrolled in a joint degree program with Indiana's School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Tulane awards two or three

415 joint degrees combining environmental specialties with a degree from the School of Business or the School of Public Health. William Funk notes that, although Lewis & Clark has a joint masters of public administration-J.D. pro­gram, he does not think anyone actually has gone through it. Two law students at

420 the University of Hawaii are enrolled in a graduate-level interdisciplinary program to receive a certificate in ocean policy.

6. Some law professors have developed their own interdisci­plinary seminars. At the University of

425 Washington, William Rodgers teaches a seminar on law and biology and is now organizing the Second Annual Law and Biology Conference, to be held this summer in cooperation with the Gruter Institute. The University of Florida Law School and Biology Depart­ment offer a joint seminar on Florida ecosystems.

430 Maryland's Law School and Toxicology Program offer an interdisciplinary seminar on lead poisoning.

7. O1iver Houck believes that coteaching an upperclass semi­nar with a professor from another school only works in certain circumstances. But he emphasizes the importance of «field ex­ercises, industrial plant

435  visits, seining critters in the marshes, getting the feel of it». At the University of Colorado, Charles F. Wilkinson's Natural Resources Seminar, which enrolls 12 law students and 3 non-law students with relevant expertise, exam­ines all of the environmental problems affecting a particular watershed each year.

440  A critical part of the seminar is a field trip to the watershed, where students meet with land managers, law­yers, environmentalists, businesspeople, and others.

V First-Year Inroads

1.Another concern for environmental law professors is the failure of the first-year curriculum at most

445 law schools to pre­pare students for the complex statutory subject matter of environmental law. In most law schools, the first-year curriculum consists almost entirely of required courses, including large doses of contracts, property, civil procedure, and torts. A few schools are beginning to introduce first-year students

450 to envi­ronmental law by addressing it as part of a course on public law. Columbia University Law School devotes one — third of its first-year course «Justice and the Regulatory State» to cov­erage of environmental law. Baylor University also has estab­lished a first — year course in public law, and the

455 faculty is recommending that environmental law be made a substantial part of the course. Other professors are seeking to encourage teachers of first — year property and torts to incorporate dis­cussion of environmental liabilities into their courses.

2.T.C. Williams Law School has developed a program that includes environmental law as part of the

460 required first-year, second-semester curriculum. Michael Wolf explains that this requirement was adopted by the faculty as a result of concern that the traditional first-year curriculum placed too much em­phasis on common law, which now has been largely supplanted by statutes in areas such as environmental law. To

465 free up space in the curriculum for the one-semester, first-year course in environmental law, T.C. Williams has changed property from a two-semester to a one-semester course. Although a few other schools are moving to incorporate environmental law into first-year courses, few professors expect it to make great

470 inroads there. As one professor notes, the «high priests of first year are hard to fight».

3.Despite the entrenched traditions that control the cur­ricula at many law schools, environmental law has generated tremendous interest among law students and spurred significant changes in legal education

475 over the last 20 years. These changes include the development of specialized environmental law programs and increased opportunities for law students to receive skills training and to gain field experience. Legal education's response to environmental concerns not only will help to improve the ability of the next

480 generation of lawyers to meet the environmental challenge but also may help to im­prove the quality of legal education generally. As William Rodgers notes, «There is no reason why environmental law can't be the vehicle for making learning fun all over again».

From: Environment, 1994, Volume 35, Number 3

 

THE GENESIS OF THE MODERN TOY

by John Brewer

1.It is a commonplace that a culture can be understood by an examination of its artifacts. Yet the history of "material culture", as opposed to the history of a society's finest works of sculpture, art and

5          architecture, is still an embryonic science. Costume, the tools of a man's (or woman's) trade, household utensils, furnishings, playthings — all of these, especially those that did not belong to the elite or leaders of

10      a society, have not received the attention devoted to "high" culture. Yet many aspects of everyday life exhibit the beliefs and social experi­ence of the bulk of a nation's people. Costume can tell us how the members of a society are ranked and ordered, how sexes are differentiated (if at all), and what qualities are

15      least or most admired. Toys are equally revealing for they almost always contain statements made by adults (often though not invari­ably parents) either about the culture in which they live and/or the values that they think desirable. Toys mirror a culture — or at least, aspects of it; conversely, if we wish to understand the significance of an individual toy or game, we must set it within a broad context, looking at it in the light of

20      prevailing attitudes towards work and play, the psychology of man, the nature of learning and the place of the child in both family and society. Toys are cultural messages — sometimes simple, occasionally complex and ambiguous, but invariably revealing.

25           2.Yet the idea of the "educational toys — indeed, even the concept of the toy as a plaything peculiar to children — is a relatively recent one. Before the eighteenth century there were virtually no toy manufacturers nor toyshops in Europe and America, equally, there were almost no books written or

30      produced especially for children, who shared most games and recreations with adults. The world of the child was not precisely separated from the realm of the adult; no special sector or segment of the culture was devoted exclusively to children·.”Thus Dr. Johnson defined "toy" in his famous Dictionary as "a

35      petty commodity; a trifle; a thing of no value; a plaything or bauble! There was absolutely no mention of children. The term "toy" meant any small inexpensive object or trinket sold to young and old alike. The travelling pedlar or chapman, the town's "toyman", offered cheap jewellery, buckles, bangles and hairpins.

40      Even "dolls" were not intended for children but were in fact miniature mannequins, clothed to display the latest fashion, fad or frippery, There were therefore almost no toys in the modern sense. This did not, of course mean that the children had no playthings; it simply meant that they had to fall back on the things

45      that they shared with their elders. They improvised and invented toys and games. Domestic utensils, the resources of field and forest, the debris of the urban envi­ronment: all of these contributed towards imaginative and open-ended play.

50                3.How do we explain this almost total absence of toys in the sixteenth and seventeenth-century English and colonial American household? Historians have advanced several expla­nations, nearly all of which attribute the lack of toys to paren­tal attitudes towards children and social attitudes towards play. Judged

55      by modern standards, it is argued, parents treated their children either with an indifference that verged on callousness or were actively brutal towards them, heating them with monotonous frequency. The world of the Anglo-American child before the modern era is therefore often portrayed as cruel, cold, unemotional

60      and lacking in the sort of family affection that might encourage play. These attitudes are usually explained as a reaction to the horrifying rates of infant and child mortality which militated against a close parent-child bond, and by the prevailing contemporary view that when children came into the world, they were,

65      like all human creatures, tainted with original sin against which a constant and brutal war had to be waged.

4.Those historians who look on the history of childhood as the gradual emancipation of the child from

70 this callous and cruel regime have used several types of evidence to demonstrate the harshness of seventeenth century childhood. English infants, they point out, were swaddled, bound so tightly that they could not move their legs and arms. This does not, how­ever, seem to have been the practice in the thirteen

75 colonies of America where babies wore loose-fitting garments. Nevertheless in both cultures parental breastfeeding was far from uni­versal, and the infant was often packed off to a wet-nurse, where quite commonly neglect and ill-treatment resulted in the child's death. From the age of two corporal punishment

80    seems to have been the staple of the child's educational diet. Schoolmasters ("my system is to whip, and to have done with it") as well as parents and tutors rarely spared the rod to spoil the child. Punishment, corporal or otherwise, was generally severe. The time between infancy and gainful employment was

85      mercilessly brief; service, apprenticeship or labour in the family began as early as seven, and all children were put to work before they were twelve or thirteen. Children died in such num­bers that they left very little trace of their lives behind them. Even in the communities on the colonial frontier, where infant

90      mortality rates were lower than in the coastal towns or back in Europe, the death of a child — your child —was a frequent oc­currence.

5.This picture of the heartless and cruel world inhabited by children needs some qualification. Nearly all

95    of the evidence that appears to demonstrate parental indifference towards the child in fact shows simply that his individuality was not strongly recognised. We tend to assume that parental affection cannot flourish unless children are regarded as individuals. But this is essentially a modern (and Western) assumption that

100  in part stems from our elevation of the bond between the parent (or, at least, the mother) and the individual child above almost all other forms of attachment. The chief affective bonds of the pre-modern American and English parent were probably to the family as a whole rather than to its individual members; this does

105  not mean that, they never showed affection to their children, only that they cared for them as a "brood".

6.The "no toy" culture, which scarcely seems to have recognised the special state of childhood, was gradually but radically transformed between the late seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries. The most

110 significant changes were the development of a new conception of man, and a parallel recognition of new processes of human learning. Man came to be seen as a malleable and manipulable creature who entered the world with a mind that was not printed with evil but was a tabula rasa, like a blank sheet of paper, on

115 which appropriate sense impressions could imprint knowledge and learning. Man, in other words, was capable of moral improvement provided that he was nurtured in the right environment. This view was accompanied by the relatively novel theory of the human psyche that emphasised man's innate tendency to

120 eschew pain and pursue pleasure. From this perspective the widespread use of brutal corporal punishment was clearly counterproductive: by associating learning and pain it was more likely to discourage an interest in learning than to teach or socialise. Such crude practices it was argued, should be replaced by a much

125 more subtle psychological manipulation of the child, one that used the propensity for play to make learning stimulating and plea­surable.

7.These educational theories are traditionally associated with the English philosopher, John Locke,

130 whose «Some Thoughts Concerning Education» (1693), which went through numer­ous editions in several languages and on both sides of the At­lantic. Locke was not the first philosopher to realise that play could be used didactically, nor was his psychology unique.

135            8. We should not, of course, assume that these ideas swept  all before them. Their acceptance varied from place to place and class to class. They were taken up predominantly by middle-class parents eager to "improve" their children. But the old attitudes and practices continued: many children were still

140  whipped and flogged, and imaginative learning rarely ousted the more traditional method of rote memorisation. Indeed, for many childnen the situation deteriorated at the end of the eighteenth century, when evangelicals on both sides of the At­lantic returned to the older view of infant depravity and re­newed the practice of wholesale flogging.

145            9. Nevertheless, Lockean theory marks the growing accep­tance in North America of the idea that education was a mat­ter of carrot rather than stick. It also heralds the genesis of the toy both as a plaything peculiar to children and as an educa­tional device. Locke and his eighteenth-century followers

150  were adamant that play was the key to successful learning. Both play and playthings, which had previously been regarded either as an obstruction to learning or as matters of no didactic conse­quence, became crucial

155  to the educational process. As Locke remarked about playthings (in sentiments remarkably similar to those of Froebel over 100 years later), "nothing that may form adult's minds, is to he overlooked and neglected, and whatsoever introduces Habits, and settles Customs in them, deserves the Care and Attention of their

160  Governors, and is not a small thing in its Concequences'. Toys and games were recognised as being very important. Indeed Locke was respon­sible for popularising one of the earliest "educational" toys, the so called "Locke blocks", whose role in teaching the al­phabet he lovingly describes in his «Thoughts on Education».

165     10. Locke's theories seem remarkably modern, and certainly they approximate much more closely to present-day views of learning than to the regime of flogging that he so vehemently opposed. Nevertheless his concept of play and of the role of toys and games was remarkably circumscribed. In his desire to

170  establish a controlled environment for the child, he recommended education at home under a private tutor. The idea of the home as a "sanctum, a haven in a heartless world, devel­oped largely through the dissociation of the dwelling-place from the place of work and because of the transformation of the middle

175  class woman from an important figure in the family economy to the mother and guardian of children kept in the home. Prosperity and the desire for gentility produced a grow­ing leisured class of women whose chief tasks were to adorn themselves and their homes and to superintend the moral wel­fare of their

180  progeny. For the middle classes of America "work", which had once been associated both with the home and with the entire family, became a predominantly masculine activity conducted beyond the domestic horizon. Play, especially children's play, became restricted to the domestic environ­ment in which parental

185  (especially maternal) control could be most successfully exercised.

11. This desire to control the play of children stemmed from notions of play itself. Neither Locke nor the aspiring middle-class parent thought of play as a means by which chil­dren could learn from each other;

190 nor, though they saw play as a means of teaching individuals social and moral precepts, did they envisage play itself as a form of socialisation. Rather they regarded it as a tool of the tutor or parent, a means by which children could be educated. Play, therefore, was looked on as an individualistic endeavour, even

195 when it involved other children, and as being didactic in a rather narrow sense.

From: History Today, Vol. 30, December 1980.

 

HUMANISTIC MEDICINE

IN A MODERN AGE

by Seymour M. Glick, M.D.

l.One does not have to be a pessimist or an incurable vic­tim of nostalgia to agree that modern medicine in the Western world is undergoing some form of crisis. One indication of the depth of the crisis is the

5        attention with which thoughtful people are willing to consider seriously almost any criticism of physi­cians and of the medical establishment-even such absurd cri­tiques as those of Illich, who would have us believe that mod­em medicine is almost the reincarnation of the Devil himself. Similarly, the proliferation of health

10      cults even within educated and otherwise sophisticated circles bears witness to the crisis of confidence besetting modern medicine. Finally, most striking are the articles, books, and even institutes on «humanistic medicines»-a phrase that logically should be redundant.

15                2.Medicine has succeeded in wiping out many diseases. Last year after a crash global eradication program that cost $300 million, the World Health Organization announced offi­cially that smallpox is dead.

      This achievement and hundreds of others have brought relief and comfort to billions of people on our

20    planet, and modern science and technology continue to break new frontiers daily. Yet the refrain of malaise and dissat­isfaction with modern medicine and its institutions continues to reverberate, and it does not seem to subside. Invariably, the discontent focuses on the human and compassionate aspects of medicine. It has

25      been said that as medicine progresses, physicians regress.

3.Оnе cannot deny that problems exist, that as the scien­tific benefits of medicine have been extended, the delivery of care has become more institutionalized and depersonalized. I personally cannot vouch for

30   the truth of the memory of how much better things were at the turn of the century. I suspect some degree of exaggeration in favor of the «good old days», since most of us tend to glorify the past nostalgically — often undeservedly. However, today's defects are clear to us all.

35       4. I should like to examine briefly some of the reasons that have been cited for the alleged deterioration of modern medi­cine, some of the remedies offered, and some of my personal biases on the subject. The analysis will perhaps be oversimpli­fied, but my purpose is mainly to stimulate some thought and reaction, not to offer a definitive analysis.

40     5.The view that is most common, and perhaps most widely held by nonphysicians, is that there is something inherently contradictory between science and humanity, between tech­nology and compassion. If this were indeed the case, it would be almost inevitable for humanity to regress as science marched ahead.

45     I believe this view to be a dangerous one with farreaching consequences ofanti-intellectualism and antiscience. This view is  perhaps  a   holdover   from t  he   classic   Cartesian   mind-body   dualism,   with

50      compassion  representing the mind or soul and science the body and the two somehow antagonistic. If one examines the evidence with an open mind, however, I believe that one has to conclude that in the field of medicine, at least, there is no inherent contradiction between the scien­tific and the compassionate.

55      Technology and science are here to serve us. In the words of Albert Einstein, «The concern for man and his destiny must always be the chief interest of all technical effort». The much maligned and expensive CT scan, the example of medical technology par excellence, has not dehumanized medicine. On the contrary, it has been a tool of unparalleled compassion. Its use has spared patients many more difficult, painful, and

60      dangerous procedures. Technology is just a means to an end. In a perverse manner of speaking, compas­sion too is just a means to an end. In the field of medicine, both technology and compassion have as a goal healing the

65      patient; we can ignore either only at the peril of producing poor medicine. We need physicians who are both compassion­ate and competent. Short-sighted persons who, in their enthu­siasm for the human and the community approach, think that they can select students, teach medicine, and produce com­passionate

70      physicians by downgrading science, as is being attempted in a number of universities in the world, are sadly mistaken. At best they will end up with compassionate ignora­muses, and at worst they will simply produce ignoramuses —­ often without even the redeeming value of compassion.

75     6.Another commonly held view is that lack of compassion in physicians is the result of the ever-increasing narrowness of the physician's education. We are told that if the students en­tering medical school were also versed in the humanities, in music, art, and philosophy, we would see emerging at gradua­tion the

80      sage and compassionate physician. This theory sounds reasonable because of our association of refinement and cul­ture with civilization and because of our confusion of the qual­ity of humanity with the study of the humanities. Unfortu­nately, the association often observed between humanity as a quality and the

85      humanities as a study is probably not one of cause and effect; culture is not necessarily related to compas­sion. Think for a moment of the highly cultured intern who leaves a desperately ill patient to listen to his or her favorite concert violinist, while a musically ignorant but more consci­entious and compassionate

90      colleague stays with the patient. One must not confuse ethics with esthetics, or compassion with culture. In our own generation, the emergence of the most inhumane regime in history from the acme of Western culture and the figure of Adolf Eichmann watching the crema­toria to the strains of Haydn should lay to rest

95      the notion that we can look to the humanities for the humanization of medi­cine or society.

7.А third explanation for the failings of modern physi­cians, and one widely held by physicians

100  themselves, is the dehumanizing effect of the long and arduous training period, with its long hours and continual physical and emotional strain. It would be foolish to deny that overwork and emo­tional strain can reduce even the most humane person to an irritable wretch, yet it is worth noting that the arduousness of

105  the physicians's training has in fact decreased remarkably during the past 50 years—a period contemporaneous with the alleged decline of the physician's humane qualities. If hard work were indeed to blame for physicians' failings, we should have an improvement rather than a deterioration during the past

110  few decades. Medical students and physicians-in-training in the past were treated in a far more condescending manner than are their modern counterparts, who are consulted and included in faculty decision making almost as equals. Physicians' working hours have declined, and conditions during the

115  postgraduate period have also improved remarkably. Almost forgotten too is the expectation of years gone by that the medical practitio­ner would be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And yet the more gently treated student and resident has seem­ingly developed into the less compassionate physician. A para­dox indeed!

120     8. If the preceding hypotheses do not provide an adequate explanation for our problem, where then shall we look for solutions to this vexing situation?

9.    I contend that the fundamental problems lie for the most part outside the medical establishment,

125  within society as a whole. The physician is largely a reflection of society. Most schools of psychology agree that the basic human character traits are well developed by the time a student enters medical school. The student's basic motivations, goals, code of ethics and concern for others are already established when

130  medical studies begin, and the medical school must work within these major constraints. Unfortunately, medical training can disil­lusion and render cynical even some quite decent students, but rarely can it convert a basically self-centered and egoistic person into a humanitarian. Such a goal would strain almost

135  any educational system.

10.     Let us examine what has happened to society's overall attitudes toward life and the implication of these changes for medicine. Most Western societies have changed from reli­gious societies into secular

140  ones. Most Western religious societies put a greater value on humanitarian and societal con­cerns than on personal gratification. Although a number of totalitarian secular countries have also placed a higher value on societal needs than on individual ones, the secular West­ern democracies have failed miserably in these goals and usu­ally have not even made the attempt.

145            11.Accompanying the transition from a religious to a secu­lar society changes have occurred in the goals and behavior of its citizens. Think for a moment of a child who is reared in a permissive environment,

150  who is accustomed to getting what he wants when he wants it, who lives in relative affluence, and who is taught to strive for happiness and selffuffillment as his ultimate goals. Is it reasonable to expect that such a child will develop into a moral and ethical adult giving his energies for the betterment of society — even if he chooses medicine as his ultimate calling?

155    12.The crisis of humane medicine is the result of the failure of secular democratic societies to inculcate moral and ethical values into their educational systems.

13. Paul Goodman has said that science rose in the 20th century because it worked better than any other

160 endeavor. Science, he says, defeated religion in a frank and fair contest of miracles and wonders. «Science worked better against plagues, and it has proved to be immensely better at Hying and distant communication». There can be little argument with these observations. The question that must be asked,

165 however, is whether science is also better than religion in training for moral behavior. I believe that the answer is ob­vious. It is no accident that some of the prime examples of humane medicine in the West are to

170 be found in hospitals run by religious groups, because the people working in these institutions have been imbued from infancy with a respect for the sanctity of life and for the dignity of human beings, and with service to humanity ranked as a higher priority than personal gratification. If we are to train humane

175 physicians, we must begin to address ourselves as a society to the basic general education toward ethical and moral values from in­fancy onward. For those who are comfortable with training that is rooted in traditional religious values, the solution is relatively easy, although all too often formalistic religion slights

180 ethics. For the large proportion of Western society that is secular, a substitute for religion in ethical training is an urgent societal need. Much of the ethical behavior of even our secular societies is still rooted in the religious heritage of a generation or two ago. As each generation moves further away from these traditional

185 habits and mores, many of the basic axioms of societal morality are held up for critical inquiry and often rejected. We are too frequently left adrift without an accepted ethical consensus, and we witness in our youth what sociologists call alienation. Our societies must come to grips with this problem because the

190 problem transcends medicine; it threatens the very fabric of Western societal structure and its future.

From: The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 304, No. 17 (April 23, 1981).

 

HANDS: A CASE STUDY

by Oliver Sacks

(1)     Madelaine J. Was admitted to St. Benedict’s Hospital near New York City in 1980, her sixtieth year, a congenially blind woman with cerebral palsy, who had been «looked after» by her family at home

5          throughout her life. Given this history and her pathetic condition — with spasticity and athetosis, i.e. involuntary movements of both hands, to which was added a failure of the eyes to develop — I expected to find her both retarded and regressed.

2                  (2) She was neither. Quite the contrary: she spoke freely, indeed eloquently (her speech, mercifully, was scarcely affected by spasticity), revealing herself to be a highspirited woman of exceptional intelligence and literacy.

2                  «You’ve read a tremendous amount», I said. «You must be really at home with Braille».

15           (4) «No, I’m not», she said. «All my reading has been done for me — by talking books or other people. I can’t read Bra­ille, not a single word. I can'’ do anything with my hands they are completely useless».

(5) She held them up, derisively. «Useless Godforsaken lumps of dough — they don’t even feel a part of me».

20                (6) I found this very startling. The hands are not usually affected by cerebral palsy; at least, not essentially affected: they may be somewhat spastic, or weak, or deformed, but are generally of considerable use

25      (unlike the legs, which may be completely paralysed — in that variant called Little’s disease, or cerebral diplegia) .

(7) Miss J.’s hands were mildly spastic and athetotic, but her sensory capacities — as I now rapidly determined — were completely intact; she immediately and correctly identified light touch, pain,

30      temperature, passive movement of the fingers. There was no impairment of elementary sensation, as such, but in dramatic contrast, there was the profoundest impair­ment of perception. She could not recognize or identify any­thing whatever — I placed all sorts of objects in her hands, including one of my own hands.

35      She could not identify — and she did not explore; there were no active «interrogatory» move­ments of her hands — they were, indeed, as inactive, as inert, as useless, as «lumps of dough».

(8) This is very strange, I said to myself. How can one make sense of all this? There is no gross sensory

40     «deficit». Her hands would seem to have the potential of being perfectly good hands — and yet they are not. Can it be that they are functionless — «useless» — because she had never used them? Had being «pro­tected», «looked after», «babied» since birth prevented her from the normal exploratory use of the hands

45      which all infants learn in the first months of life? Had she been carried about, had everything done for her, in a manner that had prevented her from developing a normal pair of hands? And if this were the case — it seemed far-fetched, but was the only hypothesis I could think of — could she now, in her sixtieth year,

50      acquire what she should have acquired in the first weeks and months of life?

(9) Was there any precedent? Had anything like this ever been described — or tried? I did not know, but

55     I immediately thought of a possible parallel — what was described by Leont’ev and Zaporozhets in their book, «The Rehabilitation of the Hand» (Pergamon Press, 1948). The condition they were describing was quite different in origin; they described a simi­lar «alienation» of the hands in some two hundred soldiers

60      following massive injury and surgery — the injured hands felt «foreign», «lifeless», «useless», «stuck on», despite elementary neurological and sensory intactness. Leon’tev and Zaporozhets spoke of how the «gnostic systems» that allow «gnosis» 1), or perceptive 2) use of the hands, to take place, could be «disso

65      ciated» in such cases as a consequence of injury, surgery, and the weeks— or months-long hiatus 3) in the use of the hands that followed. In Madelaine’s case, although the phenomenon was identical — «uselessness», «lifelessness», «alienation» — it was lifelong. She did not need just to recover her hands,

70      but to discover them — to acquire them, to achieve them — for the first time; not just to regain a dissociated gnostic system, but to construct a gnostic system she had never had in the first place. Was this possible?

(10) The injured soldiers described by Leon’tev and Zaporozhets had normal hands before injury. All

75     they had to do was to «remember» what had been «forgotten» or «dissociated», or «inactivated» through severe injury. Madelaine, in contrast, had no repertoire of memory for she had never used her hands — and she felt she had no hands — or arms either. She had never fed herself, used the toilet by herself, or reached

80      out to help herself, always leaving it for others to help her. She had behaved, for sixty years, as if she were a being without hands.

(11) This then was the challenge that faced us; a patient with perfect elementary sensations in the hands,

85     but, appar­ently, no power to integrate these sensations to the level of perceptions that were related to the world and to herself; no power to say, «I perceive, I recognize, I will, I act», so far as her «useless» hands went. But somehow or ot her (as Leon’tev and Zaporozhets found with their patients), we had to get her to

90      act and to use her hands actively, and, we hoped, in so doing, to achieve integration: «The integration is in the ac­tion», Roy Campbell wrote.

(12) Miss J. Was agreeable to all this, indeed fascinated, but puzzled and not hopeful. «How can I do anything with my hands», she asked, «when they are just lumps of putty?»

95               (13) «In the beginning is the deed», Goethe wrote. This may be so when we face moral or existential dilemmas, but not where movement and perception have their origin. Yet here too there is always something sudden: a first step (or a first word, as when Helen Keller said «water» 4), a first movement,

100  a first perception a first impulse — total, «out of the blue», where there was nothing, or nothing with sense before. «In the beginning is the impulse». 5) Not a deed, not a reflex, but an «impulse», which is both more obvious and more mysterious than either…. We could not say to Madelaine «Do it!» but we might hope for

105  an impulse: we might hope, we might solicit, we might even provoke one….

(14) I thought of the infant as it reached for the breast. «Leave Madelaine her food, as if by accident,

110 slightly out of reach on occasion», I suggested to her nurses. «Don’t starve  her, don’t tease her, but show less than your usual alacrity in feeding her». And one day it happened — what had never happened before. Miss J., impatient, hungry, instead of wait­ing passively and patiently, reached out an arm, groped, found a

115 bagel, and took it to her mouth. This was the first use other hands, her first manual act, in sixty years, and it marked her birth as a «motor individual» (Sherrington’s term for the per­son who emerges through acts). It also marked her first manual perception, and thus her birth as a complete «perceptual indi­vidual». Her first

120 perception, her first recognition, was of a bagel, or «bagelhood» — as Helen Keller’s first recognition, first utterance, was of water («waterhood»).

(15) After this first act, this first perception, progress was extremely rapid. As she had reached our to

125 explore or touch a bagel, Miss J., in her new hunger, now reached out to explore or touch the whole world. Eating led the way the feeling, the exploring of different foods, containers, implements, etc. «Rec­ognition» had somehow to be achieved by a curiously round­about sort of inference or guesswork, for having been

130 both blind and «handless» since birth, she was lacking in the simplest internal images (whereas Helen Keller at least had tactile images). Had she not been of exceptional intelligence and lit­eracy, with an imagination filled and sustained, so to speak, by the images of others, images conveyed by language, by the word, she might have remained almost as helpless as a baby.

135            (16) A bagel was recognized as round bread, with a hole in it; fork as an elongated flat object with several sharp tines. But then this preliminary analysis gave way to an immediate intu­ition, and objects

140  were instantly recognized as themselves, as immediately familiar in character and «physiognomy»; were immediately recognized as unique, as «old friends». And this sort of recognition, not analytic, but synthetic and immediate, went with a vivid delight, and a sense that she was discovering a world full of enchantment, mystery, and beauty.

2                     (17) The commonest objects delighted her — delighted her, and stimulated a desire to reproduce them. She asked for clay and started to make models: her first model, her first «sculp­ture» was of a shoehorn, and even this, somehow, was imbued with a peculiar power and humor, with flowing, powerful, chunky curves reminiscent of an early Henry Moore.

150            (18) And then — and this was within a month of her first recognitions — her attention, her appreciation, moved from objects to people. There were limits, after all, to the interest and expressive possibilities of

155  things, even when transfigured by a sort of innocent, ingenuous, and often comical genius. Now she needed to explore the human face and figure, at rest and in motion. To be «felt» by Miss J. Was a remarkable experience. Her hands, only such a little while ago inert, doughy, now seemed charged with a preternatural

160  6) animation and sensibility. One was not merely being recognized, being scrutinized, in a way more intense and searching than any visual scrutiny, but being «tasted» and appreciated meditatively, imagi­natively and aesthetically, by a born (a newborn) artist. They were, I felt, not just the hands of a blind woman exploring,

165  but of a blind artist, a meditative and creative mind, just opened to the full sensuous and spiritual reality of the world. These ex­plorations too pressed for representation and reproduction as an external reality.

(19) Miss J. Started to model heads and figures, and within a year was locally famous as the Blind

170 Sculptress of Saint Benedict’s. Her sculptures tended to be half or three-quarters life size, with simple but recognizeable features, and with a remarkably expressive energy. For me, for her, for all of us, this was a deeply moving, an amazing, almost a miraculous, experience. Who would have dreamed that basic powers

175 of perception normally acquired in the first months of life, but failing to be acquired at this time, could be acquired in one’s sixtieth year? 7) What wonderful possibilities of late learning, and learning for the handi

180 capped, this opened up. And who could have dreamed that in this blind, palsied woman, hidden away, inactivated, over-protected all her life, there lay the germ of an astonishing artistic sensibility (unsuspected by her, as by others) that would germinate and blossom into a rare and beau­tiful reality, after remaining dormant, blighted for sixty years?

Notes:

2        gnosis — recognition

2        perceptive — for purposes of gaining knowledge of so­mething through the senses.

2        hiatus — a break or interruption

(4) Helen Keller was born blind and deaf and became a lecturer, author and educator. Her teacher, Anne Sullivan, devised a method of teaching her to identify (and name) her sensory perceptions (e.g. the feel of water on her hand).

(5) impulse — a sudden urge to do something

(6) preternatural — supernatural

(7) But the case of Madelaine J., as I was to find, was by no means unique. Within a year I had encountered another pa­tient (Simon K.) who also had cerebral palsy combined with profound impairment of vision. While Mr. K. Had normal strength and sensation in his hands, he scarcely ever used them — and was extraordinarily inept in handling, exploring or rec­ognizing anything. Now that we had been alerted by Madelaine J., we wondered whether he too might not have a similar «de­velopmental agnosia» — and, as such, be «treatable» in the same way. And, indeed, we soon found that what had been achieved with Madelaine could be achieved with Simon as well. Within a year he had become very «handy» in all ways, and particularly enjoyed simple carpentry, shaping plywood and wooden blocks, and assembling them into simple wooden toys. He had no impulse to sculpt, to make reproductions he was not a natural artist like Madelaine. But still, after a half-century spent virtually without hands, he enjoyed their use in all sorts of ways.

This is more remarkable, perhaps, because he is mildly re­tarded, an amiable simpleton, in contrast to the passionate and highly gifted Madelaine J. It might be said that she is extraor­dinary, a Helen Keller, a woman in a million — but nothing like this could possibly be said of simple Simon. And yet the essential achievement — the achievement of hands — proved wholly as possible for him as for her. It seems clear that intel­ligence, as such, plays no part in the matter — that the sole and essential thing is use.

From.: «The New York Review of Books», Nov. 1984 .

 

ECOLOGICAL ARMAGEDDON

By Robert Heilbroner

The desirability of economic growth in an affluent indus­trial society such as the United States has in recent years come under attack from many quarters. Some of the strongest and most pervasive critics have been the ecologists. In a review of an important book, POPULATION, RESOURCES, ENVI­RONMENTS, by Paul and Ann Ehrlich, Robert Heilbroner summarizes and analyzes the major ecological problems posed by unlimited growth.

l. The ecological issue has assumed the dimensions of a vast popular fad, for which one can predict with reasonable assur­ance the trajectory of all fads — a period of intense general involvement, followed by

2        growing boredom and gradual extinction, save for a die-hard remnant of the faithful.

    2. I have slowly become convinced during the last twelve months that the ecological issue is not only of primary and lasting importance, but that it may indeed constitute the most dangerous and difficult

10      challenge that humanity has ever faced. Since these are very large statements, let me attempt to sub­stantiate them by drawing freely on the best single descriptive and analytic treatment of the subject that I have yet seen, Population, Resources, Environment by Paul and Ann Ehrlich of Stanford University. Rather than

15      resort to the bothersome procedure of endlessly citing their arguments in quotation marks, I shall take the liberty of reproducing their case in a rather free paraphrase, as if it were my own, until we reach the end of the basic argument after which I shall make clear some conclu­sions that I believe lie implicit in their work.

20               3. Ultimately, the ecological crisis represents our belated awakening to the fact that we live on what Kenneth Boulding has called, in the perfect phrase, our Spaceship Earth. As in all spaceships, sustained life requires that a meticulous balance be maintained between the capability of the vehicle to support life

25      and the demands made by the inhabitants of the craft. Until recently, those demands have been well within the capability of the ship, in its ability both to supply the physical and chemical requirements for continued existence and to absorb the waste products of the voyagers. This is not to say that the earth has been

30      generous — short rations have been the lot of mankind for most of its history — nor is it to deny the recurrent advent of local ecological crises — witness the destruction of whole areas like the erstwhile granaries of North Africa. But famines have passed and there have always been new areas to move to.The

35     idea that the earth as a whole was overtaxed is one that is new to our time.

3.      For it is only in our time that we are reaching the limit of earthly carrying capacity, not on a local

40      but on a global basis. Indeed, as will soon become clear, we are well past that capacity, provided that the level of resource intake and waste output represented by the average American or European is taken as a standard to be achieved by all humanity. To put it bluntly, if we take as the price of a first-class ticket the

45      resource requirements-of those passengers who travel in the Northern Hemisphere of the Spaceship, we have now reached a point at which the steerage is condemned to live forever — or at least within the horizon of the technology presently visible — at a second-class level: 5 or a point at which a considerable

50      change in living habits just be imposed on first class if the ship is ever to be converted to a one-class cruise.

4.    This strain on the carrying capacity of the vessel results from the contemporary confluence of three distinct develop­ments, each of which places tremendous or even unmanage­able strains on the life-carrying

55      capability of the planet and all of which together simply overload it. The first of these is the enormous strain imposed by the sheer burgeoning of popula­tion. The statistics of population growth are by now very well known: the earth's passenger list is growing at a rate that will give us some four billion humans by

60      1975,and that threatens to give us eight billion by 2010. I say «threatens», since it is likely that the inability of the earth to carry so large a group will result in an actual population somewhat smaller than this, especially in the steerage, where the growth is most rapid and the available resources last plentiful.

65           6. We shall return to the population problem later. But mean­while a second strain is placed on the earth by the simple cumulative effect of existing technology (combustion engines, the main industrial processes,

70      present-day agricultural tech­niques, etc.). This strain is localized mainly in the first-class portions of the vessel where each new arrival on board is rap­idly given a standard complement of capital equipment and where the rate of physical and chemical resource transforma­tion per capita steadily mounts. The strain

75      consists of the lim­ited ability of the soil, the water, and the atmosphere of these favored regions to absorb the outpourings of these fast-growing industrial processes.

7.The most dramatic instance of this limited absorptive power is the rise in the carbon dioxide content of

80      the air due to the steady growth of (largely industrial) combustion. By the year 2000, it seems beyond dispute that the CO2 content of the air will have doubled, raising the heat-trapping properties of the atmosphere. This so-called «greenhouse» effect has been pre­dicted to raise mean global temperatures

85      sufficiently to bring catastrophic potential consequences. One possibility is a sequence of climatic changes resulting from a melting of the Arctic ice floes that would result in the advent of a new ice Age; another is the slumping of the Antarctic ice cap into the sea with a consequent tidal wave that could wipe out a sub

90      stantial portion of mankind and raise the sea level by 60 to 100 feet.

8.These are all «iffy» scenarios whose present significance may be limited to alerting us to the immensity of the ecologi­cal problem; happily they are of sufficient uncertainty not to cause us immediate

95     worry (it is lucky they are, because it is extremely unlikely that all the massed technological and hu­man energy on earth could arrest such changes once they be­gan). Much closer to home is the burden placed on the earth's carrying capacity by the sheer requirements of a spreading in­dustrial activity for the fuel and

100  mineral resources needed to maintain the going rate of output per person in the first-class cabins. To raise the existing (not the anticipated) population of the earth to American standards would require the annual extraction of 75 times as much iron, 100 times as much cop­per, 200 times as much lead, and 250 times as

105  much tin as we now take from the earth.

9.Only the known reserves of iron allow us to entertain such fantastic rates of mineral exploitation (and the capital investment needed to bring about such mining operations is in itself staggering to contemplate).

110  All the other requirements exceed by far all known or reasonably anticipated ore reserves. And, to repeat, we have taken into account only today's level of population: to equip the prospective passengers of the year 2010 with this amount of basic raw material would require a doubling of all the above figures.

115     10. I  will revert later to the consequences of this prospect. First, however, let us pay attention to the third source of over­load, this one traceable to the special environment-destroying potential of newly developed

120  technologies. Of these the most important — and if it should ever come to full-scale war, of course the most lethal — is the threat posed by nuclear radia­tion. I shall not elaborate on this well-known (although not wellbelieved) danger, pausing to point out only that a nuclear holocaust would in all likelihood exert its

125  principal effect in the Northern Hemisphere. The survivors in the South would be severely hampered in their efforts at reconstruction not only because most of the easily available resources of the world have already been used up, but because most of the technological know-how would have perished along with the populations up North.

130            1l.But the threats of new technology are by no means lim­ited to the specter of nuclear devastation. There is, immedi­ately at hand, the known devastation of the new chemical pes­ticides that have now entered more

135  or less irreversibly into the living tissue of the world's population. Most mothers' milk in the United States today — I now quote the Ehrlichs verbatim — «contains so much DDT that it would be declared illegal in interstate commerce if it were sold as cow's milk»; and the DDT intake of infants around the world is twice

140  the daily allowable maximum set by the World Health Organization. We are already, in other words, being exposed to heavy dos­ages of chemicals whose effects we know to be dangerous, with what ultimate results we shall have to wait nervously to discover. (There is something to think about in the archaeological

145  evidence that one factor in the decline of Rome was the systematic poisoning of upper-class Romans from the lead with which they lined their wine containers).

12.But the threat is not limited to pesticides. Barry Com­moner predicts an agricultural crisis in the

150  United States within fifty years from the action of our fertilizers, which will either ultimately destroy soil fertility or lead to pollution of the na­tional water supply. At another comer of the new technology, the SST* threatens not only to shake us with its boom, but to affect the amount of cloud cover (and climate) by

155  its contrails**. And I have not even mentioned the standard pollution problems of smoke, industrial effluents into lakes and rivers, or solid wastes. Suffice it to report that a 1968 UNESCO Conference concluded that man has only about twenty years to go before the planet starts to become uninhabitable because of air pollution alone. Of course «starts to» is imprecise; I am reminded of a cartoon of an

industrialist looking at his billowing smoke-stacks, in front of which a forlorn figure is holding up a placard that says: «We have only 35 years to go», The caption reads, «Boy, that shook me up for a minute. I thought it said 3 to 5 years».

*SST — supersonic transport plane

**contrail — the visible condensation of water droplets or ice crystals from the atmosphere, occurring in the wake of an aircraft or missile under certain conditions.

160   

165            13. I have left until last the grimmest and gravest threats of all, speaking now on behalf of the steerage. This is the looming inability of the great green earth to bring forth sufficient food to maintain life, even at the miserable threshhold of subsis­tence at which it is now endured by perhaps a third of the world's

170  population. The problem here is the very strong likelihood that population growth will inexorably outpace whatever improvements in fertility and productivity we will be able to apply to the earth's mantle (including the watery fringes of the ocean where sea «farming» is at least technically imaginable).

175     14. Here the race is basically between two forces: on the one hand, those that give promise that the rate of population in­crease can be curbed (if not totally halted); and on the other, those that give promise of increasing the amount of sustenance we can wring from the soil.

180   15. Ultimately the problem posed by Malthus must be faced — that population tends to increase geometrically, by doubling; and that agriculture does not; so that eventually population must face the limit of a food barrier.

16.The Malthusian prophecy has been so often «refuted», as economists have pointed to the astonishing

185 rates of growth of food output in the advanced nations, that there is a danger of dismissing the warnings of the Ehrlichs as merely another premature alarm. To do so would be a fearful mistake. For unlike Malthus, who assumed that technology would remain constant, the Ehrlichs have made ample allowance for the

190 growth of technological capability, and their approach to the impending catastrophe is not shrill. They merely point out that a mild version of the Malthusian solution is already upon us, for at least half a billion

195 people are chronically hungry or out­right starving, and another 1 1/2 billion under or malnourished. Thus we do not have to wait for «gigantic inevitable famine»; it has already come.

17.What is more important is that the Ehrlichs see the mat­ter in a fundamentally different perspective

200 from Malthus, not as a problem involving supply and demand, but as one involving a total ecological equilibrium. The crisis, as the Ehrlichs see it, is thus both deeper and more complex than merely a shortage of food, although the latter is one of its more horren­dous evidences. What threatens the Spaceship Earth is a

205 pro­found imbalance between the totality of systems by which human life is maintained, and the totality of demands, industrial as well as agricultural, technological as well as demographic, to which that capacity to support life is subjected.

18. I have no doubt that one can fault bits and pieces of the Ehrlichs' analysis, and there is a note of

210 determined pessimism in their work that leads me to suspect (or at least hope) that there is somewhat more time for adaptation than they suggest. Yet I do not see how their basic conclusion can be denied. Beginning within our lifetimes and rising rapidly to crisis pro­portions in our children's, a challenge faces humankind

215 comparable to none in its history, with the possible exception of the forced migrations of the Ice Age. It is with the responses to this crisis that I wish to end this essay, for telling and coura­geous as the Ehrlichs' analysis is, I do not believe that even they have fully faced up to the implications that their own findings

220 present.

19. The first of these I have already stated: it is the clear conclusion that the underdeveloped countries can never hope to achieve parity with the developed countries. Given our present and prospective

225 technology, there are simply not enough resources to permit a «Western» rate of industrial exploitation to be expanded to a population of four billion — much less eight billion — persons. It may well be that most of the population in the underdeveloped world has no ambition to reach Western standards — indeed, does

230 not even know that such a thing as «development» is on the agenda. But the elites of these na­tions, for all their rhetorical rejection of Western (and espe­cially American) styles of life, do tend to picture a Western standard as the ultimate end of their activities. As it becomes clear that such an objective is impossible, a

235 profound reorientation of views must take place within the underdeveloped na­tions.

20.The implications of the ecological crisis for the advanced nations are not any less severe, although they are of a different kind. For it is clear that free industrial growth is just as disastrous for the Western

240 nations as a free population growth for those of the East and South. The worship in the West of a growing Gross National Product must be recognized as not only a deceptive but a very dangerous avatar; Kenneth

245 Boulding has begun a campaign, in which I shall join him, to label this statistical monster Gross National Cost.

21.The necessity to bring our economic activities into a sustainable relationship with the resource

250 capabilities and waste absorption properties of the world will pose two problems for the West, On the simpler level, a whole series of technological problems must be met. Fume-free transportation must be developed on land and air. The cult of disposability must be replaced by that of reusability. Population stability must be attained through tax and other inducements, both to conserve resources and to preserve

255 reasonable population densities. Many of these problems will tax our ingenuity, technical and socio­political, but the main problem they pose is not whether, but how soon they can be solved.

22. But there is another, deeper question that the developed nations face — at least those that have

260 capitalist economies. This problem can be stated as a crucial test as to who was right — John Stuart Mill or Karl Marx. Mill maintained, in his famous Principles, that the terminus of capitalist evolution would be a stationary state, in which the return to capital had fallen to insignifficance, and a redistributive tax system

265 would be able to capture any flows of income to the holders of scarce resources such as land. In effect, he prophesied the transformation of capitalism, in an environment of abundance, into a balanced economy, in

270 which the capitalist both as the generator of change and as the main claimant on the surplus generated by change, would in effect undergo a painless eu­thanasia.

23.The Marxian view is of course quite the opposite. The very essence of capitalism, according to Marx, is expansion— which is to say, the capitalist, as a historical «type», finds his raison d'etre in the insatiable

275 search for additional moneywealth gained through the constant growth of the economic system. The idea of a «stationary» capitalism is, in Marxian eyes, a contradiction in terms, on a logical par with a democratic ar­istocracy or an industrial feudalism.

280            24.Is the Millian or the Marxian view correct? I do not think that we can yet say. Some economic growth is certainly compatible with a stabilized rate of resource use and disposal, for growth could take the form of the expenditure of additional labor on the improvement (aesthetic or technical) of the national

285  environment. Indeed, insofar as education or cultural activity are forms of national output that require little use or resources and result in little waste product, national output could be indefinitely expanded through

290  these and similar ac­tivities. But there is no doubt that the main avenue of traditional capitalist accumulation would have to be considerably constrained; that net investment in mining and manufacturing would effectively cease; that the rate and kind of technological change would need to be supervised and probably

295  greatly re­duced; and that as a consequence the flow of profits would almost certainly fall.

25.Is this imaginable within a capitalist setting — that is, in a nation in which the business ideology permeates the views of nearly all groups and classes and establishes the bounds of what is possible and

300 natural, and what is not? Ordinarily I do not see how such a question could he answered in any way but negatively, for it is tantamount to asking a dominant class to acquiesce in the elimination of the very activities that sustain it. But this is an extraordinary challenge that may evoke an extraordinary response.

305 Like the challenge posed by war, the ecological crisis affects all classes, and therefore may be suffi­cient to induce sociological changes that would be unthinkable in ordinary circumstances.

 

WATER, WAR & PEACE

IN THE MIDDLE EAST

 

by Peter H. Gleick

Peter H. Gleick is director of the Global Environmental Program of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Develop­ment, Environment, and Security, based in Oakland, California. Partial support for the Middle East Water project of the institute has been provided by the Ploughshares Fund.

1.As the 21st century approaches, population pressures, ir­rigation demands, and growing resource needs throughout the world are increasing the competition for freshwater. Nowhere is this more evident than in

5           the arid Middle East, where the scarcity of water has played a central role in defining the po­litical relationships of the region for thousands of years. In the Middle East, ideological, religious, and geographical disputes go hand in hand with water-related tensions, and even those parts of the Middle East

10      with relatively extensive water resources, such as the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates river valleys, are coming under pressure. Competition for the limited water resources of the area is not new; people have been fighting over, and with, water since ancient times. The problem has become especially urgent in recent

15      years, however, because of increasing demands for water, the limited options for improv­ing overall supply and management, and the intense political conflicts in the region. At the same time, the need to manage jointly the shared water resources of the region may provide an unprecedented opportunity to move toward

20      an era of cooperation and peace.

2.    During the last two years, water conflicts have become sufficiently important to merit separate explicit discussion in both the multilateral and bilateral Middle East peace talks now under way (see box 1

25      on page 271-272). Among the issues that must be resolved are the allocation and control of water in, and the water rights to, the Jordan River and the three aquifers underlying the West Bank; a dispute between Syria and Jordan over the construction and operation of a number of Syrian dams on the Yarmuk River; the

30      joint management of the Euphrates River between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq; and how to protect water quality for all those dependent on these resources.

3.Conflicts among nations are caused by many factors, in­cluding religious differences, ideological

35  disputes, arguments over borders, and economic competition. Although it is difficult to disentangle the many intertwined causes of conflict, competition over natural resources and disputes over environ­mental factors are playing an increasing role in international relations.

40                4. These conflicts  can take several forms, including the use of resources or the environment as  instruments of war or as goals of military conquest. History reveals that water has fre­quently provided a justification for going to war: it has been an object of military conquest, a source of economic or

45      political strength, and both a tool and target of conflict. Also, on occasion, shortages of water have constrained a country's economic or political options. No region has seen more water-related conflicts than the Middle East, and some of these go back more than 5,000 years to the earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia  (see box 2 on pages 272-277)

50                5.Water can become a source of strategic rivalry because of its scarcity, the extent to which the supply is shared by more than one region or state, the relative power of the basin states, and the ease of access to alternative freshwater sources. In the Middle East, water is scarce and widely shared by countries with

55      enormous economic, military, and political differences. Also, there are few economically or politically acceptable al­ternative sources of supply. Thus, the temptation to use water for political or military purposes

60    has often proved irresistible. As water supplies and delivery systems become increasingly valuable in water-scarce regions, their value as military targets increases.

5.    In modem times, the most pressing water conflicts in the Middle East have centered on control of

65      the Jordan River basin, apportionment of the waters of the Euphrates and Nile Rivers, and management of the groundwater aquifers of the occupied territories.

II The Water Resources

1.The water resources of the Middle East are unevenly dis­tributed and used, and every major river in the

70      region crosses international borders. The extent to which major rivers and groundwater basins are shared by two or more nations makes the allocation and sharing of water a striking political problem and greatly complicates the collection and dissemination of even the most basic data on water availability and use. In

75      northeast Africa and the Middle East, more than percent of the total population relies upon river water that flows across a political border. Two-thirds of all Arabic speaking people in the region depend upon water

80      that originates in non-Arabic-speaking areas; two-thirds of Israel's freshwater comes from the occupied territories or the Jordan River basin; and one-quarter of the Arab people live in areas entirely dependent on nonrenewable groundwater or on expensive, desalinized sea-water.

85        2.The major shared surface water supplies in the Middle East are the Jordan, Tigres, Euphrates and Nile Rivers. Al­though the watershed of the Litani River lies entirely within Lebanon, control and allocation of its waters remain contro­versial. Several major groundwater aquifers are also heavily used and, in the occupied territories, strongly controlled.

90      3.The Middle East, actual water availability fluctuates dra­matically both seasonally and from year to year. For many of the major rivers of the region, flows in dry years may be as low as one-half to one-third the volume of the average yearly flows, and there is a long history of persistent and severe droughts.

95               4.Water quality problems also affect the region. Heavy use of water for irrigation contaminates water with agricultural chemicals and salts and reduces the quality of water for down­stream users. Overpumping from many underground aquifers is leading to the intrusion of saltwater and the contamination of

100  remaining supplies — a problem especially evident in the coastal aquifers of the Gaza Strip.

 

CLIMATE CHANGE

1.      All debates about regional water supplies assume that natu­ral water availability in the future will not

105  change and that flows will be subject only to natural variations. In fact, this assumption may no longer be true because of possible changes in the global climate. Global climate change could affect water availability in many ways, though the precise nature of such changes is still obscure. Climate change could

110  either increase or decrease overall water availability in different times and in different places. Esti­mates of changes in temperature and precipitation patterns in the Middle East are mixed: average temperatures may rise between 3 and 6 С if the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide doubles, but precipitation

115  projections show little consistency across different climate models, reflecting the difficulty of accurately model­ing precipitation and the uncertainty about regional model re­sults. Hydrologists expect higher temperatures to lead to substan­tial increases in evaporation in the region, which would decrease overall

120  water supply and increase demand. Despite the limited ability of the current models to project future conditions accu­rately, even slight decreases in longterm water availability would place severe political strains on the region, as was seen from 1979 to 1988, when a drought reduced the average runoffin the Nile

125  by only 10 percent. Although the nature of future climate changes in the region cannot be predicted with confidence, there are indica­tions that long-term decreases in flow exceeding 10 percent are possible. Some preliminary modeling of the Nile basin suggests that Nile runoff would decrease by as much as 25 percent

130  under some plausible conditions, and seasonal flows may experience even more significant changes. Ironically, the possibility of in­creases in runoff during the snowmelt season raises the specter of increased frequency of severe flooding, as was experienced in Sudan in 1988.

135            Future climate changes effectively make obsolete all old assumptions about the behavior of water supply. Perhaps the greatest certainty about future climate change is that the future will not look like the recent past. Changes are certainly com­ing, and, by the turn of the century, many of these changes may

140  already be apparent. The challenge is to identify those cases in which conflicts are likely to be exacerbated and to reduce the probability and consequences of those conflicts.

 

  Reducing Conflicts over Water

1.      There is no single solution to the Middle East's water problems, and, ultimately, a combination of

145  efforts and in novative ideas must be applied. Formal political agreements will have to be negotiated to apportion and manage the shared surface — and groundwater in the region, particularly in the Jordan and Euphrates river basins and the occupied territories. Unless all of the people who depend on the resources

150  concerned are included in these agreements, conflicts will remain. In particular, definitions of equitable utilization of the existing water resources must be negotiated and applied. Difficult deci­sions must also be

155  made to prioritize water use within each country. Israel, like California and many other parts of the world, is wrestling with the conflicts between urban and rural water demands and between the agricultural and domestic sec­tors. Jordan is trying to improve its water-use efficiency so that it, like Israel, can make better

160  use of its limited supplies. And all parties are exploring ways of increasing supply within serious economic and environmental constraints. Sharing of ex­pertise, opening access to hydrologic data, and exploring joint water conservation and supply projects offer the best opportu­nities for reducing the risk of future tensions over-water in the Middle East.

165      NEW SUPPLIES

l.The traditional reaction to resourse pressures is to focus on how to increase supplies, and this is true in the Middle East as well. There are two principal ways to increase supplies: bring in outside sources of

170 water and capture unused portions of the current supply to building reservoirs to store flows during wet periods for use during dry periods. Many ideas for developing new sources in the Middle East have been proposed, including building desalination plants to make freshwater out of seawater or brackish water;

175 constructing enormous pipelines to divert underused rivers in Turkey or Pakistan to the parched regions of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf; tankering or towing enormous bags of freshwater to coastal areas; laying aqueducts from the Mediterranean Sea or the Red Sea to the Dead Sea to generate electricity and

180 desalinate saltwater; and building new reservoirs on major rivers to increase storage for dry periods.

3.    All of these proposals are controversial, and all have un­certain economic and environmental costs. In addition, poli­tical disputes over who would control the sources of some of these options make the

185 construction of new facilities extremely unlikely in the absence of a lasting political settlement. On the other hand, some new sources of supply may eventually be developed as the economic value of water rises and as demands grow:

190            — Desalination — Ninety-seven percent of the water on the planet is too salty to drink or to grow crops. This had led to great interest in devising ways of removing salt from water in the hope of providing unlimited supplies of freshwater. In­deed, by the beginning of 1990, there were more than 7,500 facilities

195  worldwide producing more than 13,2 million cubic meters of freshwater per day. More than half of this desalina­tion capacity is in the Persian Gulf region, where inexpensive fossil fuels provide the energy necessary to run the plants. For other regions, however, the high energy cost of desalination continues to

200  make unlimited freshwater supplies an elusive goal. In the long run, the use of desalination will be limited by the amount and cost of the energy required to purify saltwater. Unless unanticipated major technical advances reduce overall energy requirements or the price of energy drops substantially, large-scale

205  desalination will always be limited to extremely water-poor and energy-rich regions.

  Peace Pipelines — Various proposals have been pre­sented for pipelines to transfer water from Turkey to the Middle East and the countries around the Persian Gulf. Nicknamed the «Peace Pipeline»,

210  such a project would take water from the Seyhan and Ceyhan Rivers in southern Turkey as far south as Jidda and Mecca in Saudi Arabia and as far east as Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Along the way, water could be de­livered to Damascus, Amman, Kuwait, and Israel. One version of the Peace Pipeline

215   would deliver more than 1,000 million cubic meters of water per year, but little real progress has come of the various proposals. In part, the Arabs, particularly the Saudis, and the Israelis fear the political dominance of Turkey or the possible interference of other states across which the pipeline would pass.

220            Other Out-Of-Basin Transfers — There have been many other proposals to transfer water to the Middle East from ba­sins where surplus water may be available. Such transfers could be accomplished via pipelines, aqueducts, tankers, floating bags, and even towing icebergs. Among the projects proposed have

225 been pipelines from Baluchistan across the gulf to the United Arab Emirates, from the Euphrates in Iraq to Jordan, and from the Nile through El Arish to the Gaza and Negev to alleviate the severe water crisis in the

230  Gaza Strip. Each of these projects depends on the long-term availability of surplus water and the political, economic, and environmental feasibility of transfer­ring that water. Similarly, it has been proposed that Israel and Jordan purchase water from the Litani River in Lebanon, build a short pipeline and set of

235  pumping plants, and move water to northern Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan. While Litani River water is used for hydroelectricity, some surplus is currently thought to be available if the economic and political price is right.

3. Moving water by tankers or by towing «trains» of bags filled with freshwater is also being explored

240  for supplying coastal areas. For the Gaza Strip, where overpumping of limited groundwater supplies is leading to saltwater intrusion, such alternatives may prove feasible, though technical and political obstacles still must be removed.

245            — Med-Dead or Red-Dead Canal — Another alternative that has been suggested in various forms is to bring large quan­tities of seawater from the Mediterranean Sea or the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, which lies well below sea level. The large elevation drop would permit the generation of hydroelectric­ity, which in

250   turn could be used to satisfy the energy requirements of a desalination plant. The freshwater provided by such a system could be allocated to Israel, the occupied territories, or western Jordan, where it would reduce pressures on the limited water supplies in those regions. Brine from the desali­nation process or

255  additional seawater could be diverted into the Dead Sea to help raise its level, which has dropped nearly 20 meters over the last several decades because of the use of the Jordan River — its only inflow. Many different schemes and locations have been presented for such canals, and more work is needed to explore

260  the best routes, the best allocation of water, and the many complicated environmental and economic uncertainties posed by such projects.

 

VI. Politics and International Law

1.    International water law and institutions have important roles to play despite the fact that no

265  satisfactory water law has been developed that is acceptable to all nations. Developing such agreements is difficult because of the many intricacies of international politics, national practices, and other complicat­ing political and social factors. For nations sharing river basins, factors affecting the successful negotiation and

270  implementation or international agreements include wheter a nation is upstream, downstream, or sharing a river as a border; the rela­tive military and economic strength of the nation; and the availability of other sources of water supply.

275            2. In the last few decades, however, international organizations have attempted to derive more general principles and new concepts governing shared freshwater resources. The In­ternational Law Association's Helsinki Rules of 1966 (since modified) and the work of the international Law Commission of the United

280  Nations are among the most important examples. In 1991, the International Law Commission completed the drafting and provisional adoption of 32 articles on the law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. Among the general principles set forth are those of equitable utilization, the

285  obligation not to cause harm to otherriparian nations, and the obligation to exchange hydrologic and other relevant data and information on a regular basis. Questions remain, however, about the principles' relative importance and means of enforcement. In particular, defining equitable utili­zation of a shared water supply

290 remains one of the most important and difficult problems facing many nations.

    3. Until now, individual water treaties covering river basins have been more effective, albeit on a far more limited regional basis, than the broader principles described by the Interna­tional Law Commission.

295  International treaties concerning shared freshwater resources extend back centuries, and there are hun­dreds of international river treaties covering everything from navigation to water quality to water rights allocations. For ex­ample, freedom of navigation was granted to a monastery in Europe in the year 805, and

300  a bilateral treaty on the Weser River, which today flows through Germany into the North Sea, was signed in 1221. Such treaties have helped reduce the risk of water conflicts in many areas, but some of them are beginning to fail as changing levels of development alter the water needs of regions and nations. The 1959

305  treaty on the Nile River and some limited bilateral agreements on the Euphrates between Iraq and Syria and between Iraq and Tur­key, for example, are now under pressure because of changes in the political and resource situations in the regions.

310            4.To make both regional treaties and broader international agreements over water more flexible, detailed mechanisms for conflict resolution and negotiations must be developed, basic hydrologic data must be acquired and shared with all parties, flexible rather than fixed water allocations are needed, and strategies

315  for sharing shortages and apportioning responsibilities for floods must be developed before shortages become an important factor. For example, both the 1944 Colorado River treaty between the United States and Mexico and the 1959 treaty on the Nile River between Egypt and Sudan allocate fixed quantities of

320  water, which are based on assumptions about the total average flows of each river. However, mistaken esti­mates of average flows or future climate changes that could alter flows prove this type of allocation to be too rigid and prone to disputes. Proportional sharing agreements, if they in­clude agreements for openly

325  sharing all hydrologic data, can help to reduce the risk of conflicts over water, and modifica­tions to these treaties should be undertaken by their signatories now, before such flow changes become evident.

5.Existing institutions appear sufficient to design and imple­ment the kinds of conflict resolution

330 mechanisms designed above, but some major improvements in them are needed. The United Nations has played an important role, through the In­ternational Law Commission, in developing guidelines and principles for internationally shared watercourses, but it should continue to press for the adoption and

335 application of the principles in water-tense regions, such as the Jordan and Euphrates river basins. Similarly, bilateral or multilateral river treaties have been effective in the past, but they should consistently include all affected parties; establish joint management com­mittees empowered to negotiate disputes; and

340 be flexible enough to adapt to long-term changes in hydrologic conditions, such as those that may result from global climate change. Finally, disputes over shared groundwater resources are particularly im­portant in the Middle East. However, international groundwa­ter law and principles are poorly developed. Some

345 recent progress has been made, but more attention should be given to this matter in the context of the Middle East.

Toward Peace and Cooperation.

1.    For all of the countries of the Middle East, long-term sustainable economic development will

350  depend in large part upon access to clean and dependable supplies of freshwater. Access to water, in turn, will depend upon regionwide comp­rehensive management of the shared major river and ground-water basins. Although new sources of water may eventually be developed, cooperation over the existing water

355  resources is essential: unless current water supplies are equitably and effi­ciently allocated and used, agreements to enlarge the overall pie will he stymied.

2.    Enormous differences remain among the parties. Jordan still has a serious dispute with Syria over

360  the damming of and withdrawals from the Yarmuk River; no formal agreements on water rights have been worked out between the Palestinians and Israelis; Turkey, Syria, and Iraq have no formal treaty allocating the waters of the Euphrates; and rapidly growing populations throughout the region are competing for an

365  inadequate overall water supply, raising unanswered questions about the costs of alternative water sources.

3.      At the broadest level, the Middle East needs a compre­hensive framework for planning and managing

370  shared water resources. If necessary, such a framework could be convened by third-party nations and institutions and include regional and national studies on water supply and demand, the deve­lopment of standards for the collection and dissemination of data, the establishment of Jordan and Euphrates river

375  basin authorities with representation from all of the people dependent on those water resources, and the identification of mecha­nisms for implementing joint projects. Some of the goals of a framework water convention would include identifying mini­mum water requirements and the equitable allocation of water;

380  water-use efficiency capabilities and goals; means for shifting water use within and among sectors, such as through water «banks» or marketing; and objectives for providing new sup­plies. The opportunity for conflict over water in the Middle East is high, but peaceful, effective cooperation remains a goal worth striving for.

 


box 1. WATER AND THE MIDDLE EAST PEACE TALKS

by Peter Yolles and Peter H.Gleick

Peter Yolles is a research assistant at the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security, based in Oakland, California. Peter H. Gleick is the director of the Pacific Institute's Global Environment Program.

Water is such an important aspect of the international rela­tionships in the Middle East that it has been made an explicit part of the ongoing peace talks. There are two tracks to these talks, the bilateral talks and

5          the multilateral talks. The official goal of the bilateral negotiations is a «just, lasting, and cornprehensive peace». These talks are where the major political  questions are being worked out in meetings between Israel and each of the other interests in the area. The major water issues in the bilateral talks are defining

10      and securing appropriate shares of water rights. Discussion of the prime question of control of water and water rights was originally part of the multilateral talks but was recently moved to the bilateral talks. In the

15      Israeli-Jordanian bilateral talks, a subcommittee on «Water, Energy, and Environment» was formed, and a subcommittee on «Land and Water» has been formed for the Israeli-Palestin­ian talks.

There are five separate working groups in the multilateral talks: Refugees, Anns Control and Regional

20      Security, Economic Development, Environment, and Water. A steering committee oversees the work of these groups and provides links with the ongoing bilateral talks. In the water talks of the multilaterals, practical questions of regional cooperation are under discussion with all interested governmental parties.

25      These questions include how to alleviate short-term and long-term water shortages, how to increase overall water supplies, and what institutions could enhance data sharing, conflict resolution, and river basin management. Four sets of multilateral water negotiations have already been held in Vienna (May 1992),

30      Washington, D.C. (September 1992), Geneva (April 1993), and Beijing (October 1993). The next set is being held this month in Oman. The water track of the multilaterals is the only one to have successfully produced a signed agreement: to cooperate on a series of formal and informal «activities» around supply

35     questions, data sharing, and institution building. These activities began in summer 1993 and are continuing.

In addition to the formal peace talks now under way, there is an informal track of separate independent, unofficial discussions. These are often academic meetings, workshops, and con­ferences. Among the recent

40     meetings have been an Israeli-Palestinian conference in Zurich in December 1992; an academic workshop on the multilaterals held at the University of California at Los Angeles in April 1993, which included dellegates from Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinians; a meeting in Champagne/Urbana, Illinois, sponsored by

45      the International Water Resources Association in October 1993; and a Pugwash Conference on Middle East issues held outside of Stockholm in December 1993.

These meetings provide an unofficial forum for broaching ideas and exchanging information, and they

50      are considered extremly fruitful both for the ideas that are raised and for the relationships that are formed. Several of the ideas that have made their way into the recent formal agreements between Israel and the Palestinians and Israel and Jordan orignated at these unofficial meetings. These ideas include the goal

55      ofequetable utilization, the supply of minimum water requirements to existing inhabitants, and the need to examine certain new sup­ply options.                                            

box 2. CONFLICTS OVER WATER IN THE MYTHS, LEGENDS, AND ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST

by Haleh Hatami and Peter H. Gleick

The history of water-related disputes in the Middle East goes back to antiquity and is described in the many myths, legends, and historical accounts that have survived from earlier times. These disputes range

5   from conflicts  over access to adequate water supplies to intentional attacks on water delivery systems during wars. A chronology of such water-related conflicts in the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys during the last 5,000 years appears on the facing page.

10                One of the earliest examples of the use of water as a weapon is the ancient Sumerian myth — which parallels the Biblical account of Noah and the deluge-recounting the deeds of the diety Ea, who punishes humanity's sins by inflicting the. Earth with a great flood. According to the Sumerians, the pa­

15      triarch Utu speaks with Ea, who warns him of the impending flood and orders him to build a large vessel filled with «all the seeds of life».

 A dispute between the city-states of Umma and Lagash over the fertile soils of Mesopotamia between

20      the modern-day Tigris and Euphrates Rivers continued from 2500 to 2400 B.C. and included conflicts over irrigation systems and the intentional diversion of water supplies. Continuing disputes over water in the region later led Hammurabi of Babylon (around 11790 B.C.) to include several laws in the famous «Code

25      of Hammurabi» pertaining to the negligence of irrigation systems and to water theft.

Many Biblical accounts include descriptions of the use of water as an instrument of conflict, including the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael to the wilderness with only a limited amount of water and their

30      divine salvation when God leads them to a well (Genesis 21:1-23). According to Islam, Ishmael's offspring Constitute the nation of Islam; a similar Quranic verse parallels this Biblical account. The well, called Zum Zum, is thought to be located at Mecca. Exodus recounts the miracle of Moses  parting the Red Sea or,

35      alternatively, damming a tributary of the Nile to prevent the Egyptians from reaching the Jews as they journeyed through the Sinai. In Chronicles 32:3, Hezekiah jdigs a well outside the walls of Jerusalem and uses a conduit to bring in water to prepare for a siege by Sennacherib. By cutting off water supplies outside

40      of the city walls, Jerusalem survives the attack.

Other historical accounts offer fascinating insights into the role of water in war and politics. Sargon II, the Assyrian king from 720 to 705 B.C., destroyed the intricate irrigation network of the Haldians after his

45 successful campaign through Armenia. Sennacherib of Assyria devastated Babylon in 689 В. С. as retribution for the death of his son and intentionally destroyed the water supply canals to the city. Assurbanipal, King of Assyria from 669 to 626 В С., seized water wells as part of his strategy of desert

50      warfare against Arabia. According to inscriptions recorded during the reign of Esarhaddon (681-669 B.C.), the Assyrians besieged the city of Tyre, cutting off food and water. In another account, in 612 B.C., a coalition ofi Egyptian, Median (Persian), and Babylonian forces attacked and destroyed Ninevah, the

55      capital of Assyria, by diverting the Khosr River to create a flood.

Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 B.C.) built immense walls around Babylon and used the Euphrates River and a series of canals as defensive moats surrounding the inner castle. Describing Nebuchadnezzar's plan to

60  create an impregnable city, the ancient historian Berossus states, «He arranged it so that be siegers would no longer be able to divert the river against the city by surrounding the inner city with three circuits of  walls».

65      In one of the most intriguing legends, Herodotus describes how Cyrus the Great successfully invaded Babylon in 539 B.C. by diverting the Euphrates River above the city into the desert and marching his troops into the city along the dry riverbed.

THE PARTIAL CHRONOLOGY OF CONFLICT OVER WATER IN THE ANCIENT MIDEAST

3000 B.C. - The Flood

An ancient Sumerian legend recounts the deeds of the diety Ea, who punishes humanity for its sins by inflicting the Earth with a six-day storm. The Sumerian myth parallels the Biblical account of Noah and the deluge, although some details differ.

2500 В. С.-Lagash-Umma Border Dispute

The dispute over the «Gu'edena» (edge of paradise) region begins. Uriama, King of Lagash from 2450 to 2400 B.C., diverts water from this region to boundary canals, drying up boundary ditches to deprive Umma of water. His son II cuts off the water supply to Girsu, a city in Umma.

1790 B.C.— Code of Hammurabi for the State of Sumer

Hammurabi lists several laws pertaining to irrigation that provide for possible negligence of irrigation systems and water theft.

1720-1684 B.C. - Abi-Eshuh v. Iluma-Ilum

A grandson of Hammurabi, Abish or Abi-Eshuh, dams the Tigris to prevent the retreat of rebels led by Iluma-Ilum, who declared independence of Babylon. This failed attempt marks  the decline of the Sumerians who had reached their apex un­der Hammurabi.

1200 B.C.-Moses and the Parting of the Red Sea

When Moses and the retreating Jews find themselves trapped between the pharaoh's army and the Red Sea, Moses miracu, lously parts the waters of the Red Sea, allowing his followers to escape. The waters close behind them and cut off the Egyptians.

720-705 B.C.—Sargon II Destroys Armenian Waterworks

After a successful campaign against the Haldians of Arme­nia, Sargon II of Assyria destroys their intricate irrigation net­work and floods their land.

705-682 B.C. -Sennacherib and the Fall of Babylon

In quelling rebellious Assyrians in 695 B.C., Sennacherib razes Babylon and diverts one of the principal irrigation canals so that its waters wash over the ruins.

Sennacherib and Hezekiah

As recounted in Chronicles 32:3, Hezekiah digs a well out­side the walls of Jerusalem and uses a conduit to bring in water. Preparing for a possible siege by Sennacherib, he cuts off water supplies outside of the city walls, and Jerusalem sur­vives the attack.

681-669 B.C. — Esarhaddon and the Siege of Tyre

Esarhaddon, an Assyrian, refers to an earlier period when gods, angered by insolent mortals, create a destructive flo­od. According to inscriptions recorded during his reign, Esarhaddon besieges Tyre, cutting off food and water.

669-626 B.C.-Assurbanipal, Siege of Tyre, Drying of Wells

Assurbanipal's inscriptions also refer to a siege against Tyre, although scholars attribute it to Esarhaddon. In campaigns against both Arabia and Elam in 645 B.C., Assurbanipal, son of Esarhaddon, dries up wells to deprive Elamite troops. He also guards wells from Arabian fugitives in an earlier Arabian war. On his return from victorious battle against Elam, Assurbanipal floods the city of Sapibel, an ally of Elam. According to inscriptions, he dams the Ulai River with the bodies of dead Elamite soldiers and deprives dead Elamite kings of their food and water offerings.

612 B.C. — Fall of Ninevah in Assyria and the Khosr River

A coalition of Egyptian, Median (Persian), and Babylonian forces attacks and destroys Ninevah, the capital of Assyria Nebuchadnezzar's father, Nebopolassar, leads the Babylonians. The converging armies divert the Khosr River to create a flood, which allows them to elevate their siege engines on rafts.

605-562 B.C. — Nebuchadnezzar Uses Water to Defend Babylon

Nebuchadnezzar builds immense walls around Babylon, using the Euphrates and canals as defensive moats surrounding the inner castle.

558-528 B.C.—Cyrus the Graet Digs 360 Canals

 

On his way from Sardis to defeat Nabonidus at Babylon,  Cyrus faces a powerful tributary of the Tigris, probably the Diyalah. According to Herodotus's account, the river drowns his royal white horse and presents a formidable obstacle to his march. Cyrus, angered by the «insolence» of the river, halts his army and orders them to cut 360 canals to divert the river's  flow. Other historians argue that Cyrus needed the water to maintain his troops on their southward journey, while another  asserts that the construction was an attempt to win the confi­dence of the locals.

539 B.C.—Cyrus the Great Invades Babylon

 

According to Herodotus, Cyrus invades Babylon by diverting the Euphrates above the city and marching troops along the dry riverbed. This popular account describes a midnight attack that coincided with a Babylonian feast.

 

355-323 B.C.—Alexander the Great Destroys Persian Dams

 

Returning from the razing of Persepolis, Alexander pro­ceeds to India. After the Indian campaigns, he heads back to Babylon via the Persian Gulf and Tigris, where he tears down defensive weirs that the Persians had constructed along the river. Arrian describes Alexander's disdain for the Persians' attempt to block navigation, which he saw as «unbecoming to  men who are victorious in battle».

From Environment, 1994, Vol 36, Number 3.

 

LEADERSHIP

by Fred E. Fiedler and Martin M. Chemers

l.Most of us believe that we possess the uncanny ability to identify outstanding leaders. This confidence in the ability to spot the «comers» is encouraged by the belief of many execu­tives that they would not be

5          where they are if (A) they were not  excellent leaders and (B) they could not pick them. It may well be true that some executives and personnel men do have the intuition necessary to select good leaders for certain jobs. It is equally true — and considerably more relevant — that most executives do not, and that they

10    share this lack of ability with psychologists, personnel men, and the rest of us mortals.

2.It is worth asking, first of all, why many executives think they are endowed with such abilities. One answer is that it is very difficult to determine in most situations how well a leader performed, and only

15     rarely do we compare one leader with another. Getting the typical vice-president to say why a par­ticular manager performs well is often like trying to nail jelly to a wall: he tells you that every manager's job is different, that it's not just how much one does but how he does it, and that whatever measure you suggest

20    does not really capture the essence of managerial performance.

3.That vice-president is, of course, absolutely correct. What a manager does is indeed highly varied, and managerial perfor­mance is very difficult to measure. It is therefore essential that we realize the difficulties

25  not only in predicting who will achieve  positions of leadership, and who will perform well as a leader, but also in evaluating the selections once they have been made.

4.Training and experience seem to have little to do with the ability to select leaders. Interviewers, be

30   they executives, psychologists, or trained personnel managers, are not much better  than chance at picking effective executives, and they are fre­quently worse. Each interviewer tends to approach the job with his own idea of what a good executive should be like, what the executive's job will be, and what is needed.

35                5.Webster (1964) discovered that the interviewer tends to form an initial impression within the first four or five min­utes, and that he tends to search for additional information to support and substantiate his hunches. Webster, Wagner (1949), Mayfield (1964), and others have demonstrated that interviewers

40      often disagree with one another quite radically, that the candidate rated best by interviewer A is likely to be rated poorest by interviewer B. This means that a person's career may depend on which interviewer he happens to hit that day.

45                6. Similar disappointing results in predicting future behavior on the job have been obtained even where the interviewers were highly trained psychologists and psychiatrists selecting psychology trainees for the Veteran's Administration (Kelly and Fiske, 1951). Only when interviewers refrained from mak­ing

50      inferences — in effect, when they minimized the importance of interviewing in the first place—did their predictions lead to some success. The most notable example is Ghiselli's (1966) study of interviewing potential stockbrokers. In interviews with 507 candidates, the best predictor turned out to be simply how

55      much a man knew about the job for which he applied. Ghiselli's predictions were thus mainly based on screening out men who did not know what to expect in the stock brokerage business and had little idea of why they wanted to enter it. The best predictor of clinical success in the Kelly and Fiske (1951) study was

60      the Strong Vocational Interest Inventory, a test which matches the candidate's interest patterns to patterns of men who had remained (or survived) in the particular field or professi­on. In general, therefore, interviewing is a poor way of select­ing executives and tends to contribute more «noise» than true information about the applicant's chances for succeeding.

65                7.1t is important to reiterate that good performance criteria are essential for rational selection. Given all the difficulties and inaccuracies of interviewing and testing, if the personnel manager at least knows what

70      sort of person he is looking for, he has a better chance of finding him. This is especially true in business. Because the nature of a manager's job is diversified, exact criteria are extremely difficult to specify. Even when we do have some general idea of what traits are needed for a particular job, we cannot be sure which

75      exact level of the par­ticular trait is most beneficial. Suppose that we are picking firstline supervisors in a production department. We may know that we would like someone who has enough education so that he can easily handle the administrative aspects of his job, but exactly how much education is enough, and how

80      much is too much? A person who is overeducated for the job is likely to become ineffective. Many unemployed scientists and engineers are turned down for jobs because the company is afraid that they are overqualified and will therefore become bored and dissatisfied.

85               8.Another selection danger is that of placing much emphasis on the one or two criteria we think are important. A per­sonnel director may believe that a foreman's success depends largely on having a pleasing personality. He may then end up picking individuals who have gone through life on charm rather than

90      merit or effort. Without goad criteria and sound follow up studies, he will never learn whether his predictions are right or wrong, and he will therefore go right on making inaccurate selections.

ARE THERE LEADERSHIP TRAITS?

95                9.We have taken a rather pessimistic look at selecting leaders by interviews. What is the possibility that we can select leaders by means of leadership traits? By a trait we generally mean a personality attribute or a way of interacting with others which is independent of the situation, that is, a characteristic of the

100  rather person than of the situation. If leaders are born and not made, why should we not be able to develop some tests which tap the individual's ability to lead others? Many business executives, military men, and laymen firmly believe that there are inborn qualities or attributes acquired early in life which make a person a good leader. What is the evidence?

105            l0.There is certainly no lack of research addressed to the question. In fact, the search for leadership traits was the most important single activity with which leadership theorists con­cerned themselves before

110  world War II. The truly remarkable success of the intelligence testing spurred by the needs of World War I led to a natural extension of interest in the measurement of other psychological abilities and traits. Personality test de­velopment flourished in the years between World Wars I and II. The number and type of

115  personality attributes which were investigated spanned a wide range including intelligence, dominance, aggressiveness, masculinity, perceptiveness, scholarship, fluency of speech, judgment, decision-making ability, insight, and physical characteristics such as weight, height, energy, health, physique, athletic ability, and grooming.

120            1l. In general, the findings were disappointing. Scogdill (1948) reviewed the literature and, in effect, gave this line of study the coup de grace, even though the search for leadership traits still continues on a very limited scale. It must he said, however, that some relationships between leadership attributes and

125  leadership status were found. While the relationships were very weak, it may be worthwhile to report what   evidence there is.

     12. Since many findings were contradictory, Stogdill assessed the strength of various findings on the basis of the number of studies which reported similar findings. Two major conclu­sions were reached based

130  on the existence of positive results from at least 15 studies:

«(a) The average person who occupies a position of leader­ship exceeds the average member of his group in...(l) intelli­gence, (2) scholarship, (3) dependability in exercising respon­sibilities, (4) activity and social

135 participation, and (5) socioeconomic status.

«(b) The qualities, characteristics, and skills required in a leader are determined to a large extent by the demands of the situation in which he is to function as a leader» (p. 63).

Positive evidence from 10 or more of the studies showed:

140            «The average person who occupies a position of leadership exceeds the average member of his group to some degree in the following respects: (i) sociability, (ii) persistence, (iii) initia­tive, (iv) knowing how to

145  get things done, (v) self confidence, (vi) alertness to, and insight into, situations, (vii) cooperativeness, (viii) popularity, (ix) adaptability, and (x) verbal facility» (p.63).

13.It should be stressed, however, that the findings were so tenuous that there is no real hope of using

150 them to identify or to predict leaders in any practical situation. In fact, Stogdill concluded:

«A person does not become a leader by virtue of the pos­session of some combination of traits, but by the pattern of personal characteristics, activities, and goals of the followers. Thus, leadership must be

155 conceived in terms of the interaction of variables which are in constant flux and change. The factor of   change is especially characteristic of the situation, which may be radically altered by the addition or loss of members, changes in interpersonal relationships, changes in goals, com­petition of extra-group influences,

160 and the like. The personal characteristics of the leader and of the followers are, in comparison, highly stable. The persistence of individual patterns of human behavior in the face of constant situational change appears to be a primary obstacle encountered not only in the practice of leadership, but in the selection and

165 placement of leaders....it becomes clear that an adequate analysis of leader­ship involves not only a study of leaders, but also of situa­tions».

14. A subsequent review of the leadership literature by R.D. Mann (1959) concluded that'a number of

170 relationships between an individual's personality and his leadership status in groups appeared to'be well established. In particular, intelli­gence, adjustment and extroversion are related to leadership status, though Mann found the relationships to be very low. Even the intelligence score, which has been the most

175 consistent predictor, was only poorly related to leadership perfor­mance.

15.The relevance of early studies to current investigations of leadership quickly becomes apparent when

180 we lolok at some popular assumptions about leaders, such as «he is a bom leader», or «a man who can lead in one situation can lead in another». Similarly, we are constantly exposed to the customs of the business community and of government in which a man who has been outstanding in a managerial position of one

185 organiza­tion is  often transferred  or hired  by another organization.  The examples  abound. General  Eisenhower was appointed as presi­dent of Columbia University even though he had never held a managerial position in an academic institution. He was sub­sequently elected president of the United States

190 even though he had never before held political office. General MacArthur was elected chairman of Sperry Rand Corporation, and dur­ing World War II, Gordon Gray, the former president of a railroad, became the head of the U.S. Veterans Administra­tion. Unfortunately, there are no data which would allow us to keep a

195 tally of the managers who switched and failed. It should be pointed out, however, that to the extent that lead­ership calls upon the exercise of certain administrative skills, it is reasonable to expect that some transfer of these skills to new positions should be possible.

200     16. Let us consider the two sides of the trait issue. The individual committed to the belief that there is a leadership trait, or a pattern of leadership traits, can point to the findings which show that intelligence, sociability, initiative, and other traits or attributes are related to leadership status. He can also point to a

205 number of individuals who performed outstandingly well in a wide variety of leadership tasks. He can further claim that studies which are inconclusive cannot be taken as proof that leadership traits do not exist. After all, the investigators simply may not have been bright enough, they may have been insuffi­ciently

210 persistent, the true leadership trait or trait patterns may  act yet have been identified, and he knows — and you know — of people who keep getting into leadership positions.

17.The person who goes along with Stogdill, Mann, and others would have to admit that there are some

215 personality attributes like intelligence which are related to becoming a leader. The relationships are not large, however, and they are more likely to be incidental to leadership than central. Some­one who is intelligent, sociable, tall, and competent is also known by more people and is therefore more likely to be se­lected for a leadership position.

220            18.It is certainly true, and perfectly understandable, that the individual who is seen by one group of people as trustwor­thy, intelligent, or willing to assume responsibilities will prob­ably look intelligent,

225  trustworthy, responsible, etc. to another group of similar people. He will, therefore, be more likely to attain another leadership position, as has been demonstrated in a number of studies as well as in many everyday situations.

19. The question is whether the individual who looks like a leader and is therefore chosen to fill a

230 leadership job will also turn out to be an effective leader. In other words, will he really do what he is supposed to do, and will he do it as well as or better than others who are called upon to perform a similar task?

20.A position of authority certainly does not imply compe­tence or excellence in the person exercising

235 that authority. While a doctor may have numerous patients, this is no assur­ance that he is actually able to cure people. He may, in fact, be a poor diagnostician and an inept practitioner who, by means of a good bedside manner, manages to look and act the part of the outstanding physician.

240            21. More importantly, it is often too late or quite irrelevant to ask how a person got to a position of leadership once he has achieved it. People become leaders for any number of reasons, and very often the

245  choice of a particular individual is quite fortuitous. What does concern us is the question of how to choose the person who will be effective or how to improve his performance.

22.Another question, whether we can select the effective leader on the basis of his psychological traits,

250 is more difficult to answer. As before, there is no evidence that there are any particular traits which make a person an effective leader. An individual's height and weight, or verbal fluency, may have assisted him in being elevated to a position of leadership, but the number of inches of height or the number of pounds of weight do not correlate with his performance.

255      23.The most telling piece of evidence against the leadership trait theory comes from a variety of studies in which the same leaders were observed or compared with others on different leadership tasks. The logic

260 of this procedure is quite compel­ling. We may not know the nature of the particular leadership trait or of the personality attributes which make a man an effective leader, but whatever they may be, they should enable him to perform better over many different situations. As we said before, a leadership trait, like any other personality trait, is defined as an attribute of personality which is constant over situations. We should not call an individual intelligent if he can solve arithmetic problems in school but not in a business

265 situation. We should not call him mechanically adept if he can work with gears but not with levers. Thus, if there is such a thing as a leadership effectiveness trait, the same people should emerge as effective no

270 matter what the situation might be.

24. A number of important studies indicate that this is not the case. One study showed that the ratings of navy officers while on shore duty were totally unrelated to the ratings of these same officers on shipboard

275 duty. Thus, effectiveness in one situation was quite unrelated to effectiveness in another situation.

25. Fiedler and his associates (1966) conducted a large field experiment in cooperation with the Belgian

280 navy. It involved the assembly of 96 different three-man teams, each of which were given four identical tasks. One of these tasks consisted of writing a letter urging young men to join the Belgian navy as a career. The second and third tasks consisted of trying to route a ship convoy through 10 and then through 12

285 different ports in the most efficient manner (i.e., covering the least number of miles). The final task required the leaders to teach their men, without speaking, how to disassemble and reassemble an automatic pistol. All of these tasks were developed with the assistance of Belgian navy officers in charge of the camp,

290 and the men participating in this study considered the tasks fair and appropriate.

26.The performance of each team was carefully measured and the performance scores for the four tasks were then intercorrelated to determine whether the leaders who performed well on one task would also

295 perform well on the others. The results showed that the median correlation was only 0.14, i.e., few individuals performed consistently well or poorly.

27. Similar results were obtained in other studies (Fiedler and Chemers, 1968). In fact, one major

300 investigation of bomber crew performance during the Korean War, by Knoell and Forgays (1952), showed that there were no consistently effec­tive commanders on such apparently similar tasks as visual bombing and radar bombing, and no relationships between bomber crews in the effectiveness of performing such tasks as navigating accurately, bombing, or maintaining the plane.

305     28.The implications of these studies are quite clear. They cannot be shrugged off as being inadequate, or based on too small a sample of groups, or consisting of meaningless tasks. The findings must be interpreted as indicating that leadership performance on one type of task is essentially unrelated to leadership

310 performance on another type of task. Therefore, leadership traits, or any personality traits, are not likely to have a large influence on the performance of different leader­ship tasks. This would mean that we cannot

315 really speak of effective or ineffective leaders. Rather, a leader may be effective on one task and ineffective on another.

From: Fred Fiedler and Martin Chemers, Leadership and Effective

Management, 1974.

THE ROLE OF ELITES

by Edward Shils

1.Under colonial conditions, the underdeveloped countries lacked the effective demand which permits a modern intellec­tual class, in its full variety, to come into existence. Persons who acquired intellectual

5         qualifications had only a few markets for their skills. The higher civil service was by all odds the most bountiful of these, but opportunities were restricted because it was small in size and the posts were mainly pre-empted by foreigners. (In India in the last decade of the British Raj, there were only about 1200 such

10    posts in the Indian Civil Service. and of these, a little less than half were filled by Indians. In other countries, the number of posts was smaller and the pro­portion held by persons of indigenous origin was also much smaller.)

15      2. Joumalism, as a result of generally widespread illiteracy,  was a stunted growth and provided only a few opportunities, which were not at all remunerative. Journalism under colonial conditions was much more of an unprofitable political mission than a commercially attractive investment, and most of it was on the minuscule scale.

20     3.The medical profession was kept small by the costliness of the course of study, the absence of an effective demand for medical services, and the pre-emption of much of the senior level of the medical service by the government and its conse­quent reservation for foreigners.

25       4.Teaching at its lower levels was unattractive to intellectu­als because it involved living in villages away from the lights and interests of the larger towns, and because it was extremely unremunerative. Nor

30    were there many opportunities in it. On the secondary and higher levels, opportunities were also meager. Of all the underdeveloped countries, only India had an extensive modem college and university system before 1920; after that date the additions to the Indian system of higher education came very slowly until the eve

35    of the Second World War and the chaos which accompanied it. Outside of India there were at most only a few thousand posts available in insti­tutions of higher learning in all of colonial Asia and Africa, and some of these were reserved for Europeans (and Americans, in the two American colleges of the Middle East).

40      Thus opportunities for teaching on the upper levels of an extremely lean educational system were few. Where the authorities sought to maintain a high standard, they were very particular about whom they chose to employ. (It should be added that political considerations, at this time of nationalistic, anti-colonialist

45      effervescence, likewise restricted the chances of entry, since many able young men disqualified themselves by the high jinks of adolescent politics during their student days).

5.The Legal Profession. For these reasons many of the in­tellectually gifted and interested who also had

50  to gain their own livelihood entered the course of legal study and then the practice of the profession of the law. Entry to the legal profes­sion was not restricted on ethnic grounds; the course of study was short and inexpensive and could be easily undertaken. There was, moreover, a considerable effective demand for legal ser­vices.

55       6.The colonial powers were concerned with order and jus­tice and, in their various ways, had attempted to establish the rule of law in the colonial territories. The wealthy landowning classes and the newer wealthy merchants were frequently en­gaged in litigations in which huge sums were involved and the 60

60  possibility of lawyers to earn handsome fees gave an eclat to the legal profession which only the higher civil service other­wise possessed.

6.      Furthermore, in countries like India, Egypt or Nigeria, for example, what else could a university or

65    college graduate do with his qualifications if he did not wish to settle for a clerkship in the government or in a foreign commercial firm? The law schools were therefore able to attract throngs of stu­dents. Once the legal qualifications had been obtained, the young lawyer went into the nether regions of the bar, where he

70    had much time for other interests. The leisure time of the young lawyer was a fertile field in which much political activity grew.

8.This existence of a stratum of underemployed young law­yers was made possible by their kinship

75     connections. The aspirants to the intellectual professions in the under-developed countries almost always came from the more prosperous sec­tions of society. They were the sons of chiefs, noblemen, and landowners, of ministers, and officials of territories in which indirect rule existed, and of civil servants and

80      teachers in countries under direct rule. In some countries, they occasionally came from prosperous mercantile families, though seldom in large numbers.

9. These social origins, against the background of the diffuse obligations accepted by members of an

85      extended kinship system, meant that even where the income gained from a profes­sion was inadequate to maintain a man and his immediate family, he could still continue to associate himself with the profession. The deficiencies in his earnings were made up by his kinsmen. Unlike teaching, the civil service, and most

90      journalism, where membership in the profession is defined not merely by qualification and intermittent practice but by actual employment, a person need not earn a living by legal practice in order to be a lawyer. This is why the legal profession in nearly all the underdeveloped countries has been, before and since

95      independence, crowded by a few very successful lawyers and a great number of very unsuccessful ones.

10. These are also some of the reasons why the legal profes­sion supplied so many outstanding leaders of

100 the nationalist movements during colonial times, and why the lawyer-intellectuals form such a vital part of the political elites of the new states.

11.     Students. No consideration of the intellectual class in underdeveloped countries can disregard

105  the university students. In advanced countries, students are not regarded as ex officio intellectuals; in underdeveloped countries, they are. Students in modem colleges and universities in underdeveloped coun­tries have been treated as part of the intellectual class — or at least were before independence and they

110  have regarded them­selves as such. Perhaps the mere commencement of an adult form of contact with modem intellectual traditions and the anticipation — however insecure that acquisition of those tra­ditions would qualify one for the modem intellectual profes­sions conferred that status on university and college students, and derivatively, on secondary-school students.

115    12.The student enjoyed double favor in the eyes of his fellowcountryman. As one of the tiny minority gaining a mod­em education, he was becoming qualified for a respected, se­cure, and well-paid position

120 close to the center of society, as a civil servant, teacher or lawyer. As a bearer of the spirit of revolt against the foreign ruler, he gained the admiration and confidence of those of his seniors who were imbued with the national idea.

12.     Formally, the student movements in the colonial coun­tries began their careers only in the 1920's,

125  but long before that the secondary schools, colleges, and universities had been a source of personnel for the more ebullient and aggressive na­tionalistic movements. Since the beginning of the present cen­tury, students have been in a state of turbulence. This turbu­lence flowed more and more into politics, until the

130  students became vital foci of the national independence movements. The secondary schools, colleges, and universities attended by the students of underdeveloped countries became academies of national revolution. It was not the intention of the administra­tors and teachers that they should become such; rather, the

135  contrary. Nonetheless they did, both in their own countries and in the metropolitan centers of London and Paris, where many of the most important architects of independence were trained, and where they found the intellectual resonance and moral support which sustained them in lean years.

140     14.The London School of Economics in particular has prob­ably contributed much more to the excitation of nationalistic sentiment than any other educational institution in the world. At the School of Economics,

145 the late Professor Harold Laski did more than any other single individual to hearten the colonial students and to make them feel that the great weight of liberal Western learning supported thier political enthusiasm.

15.     However, it was not only in the universities of London and Paris, but in shabby clubs and cafes,

150  cheap hotels and restaurants, dingy rooming houses and the tiny cluttered offiees of their nationalist organizations that the colonial stu­dents were educated in nationalism, acquired some degree of national consciousness, and came to feel how retrograde their own countries were and what they might be if only

155  they be­came their own masters and modernized themselves. Personalities like Mr. Krishna Menon, Or. Nkrumah, and Dr. Banda were themselves formed in these milieux, and in turn formed many of those who were to play an active part in the move­ment in their own countries.

160    16.The political propensities of the students have been, in part, products of adolescent rebelliousness. This has been es­pecially pronounced in those who were brought up in a tradi­tionally oppressive environment and were indulged with a spell of freedom from that environment — above all, freedom from

165 the control of the elders and kinsmen. Once, however, the new tradition of rebellion was established among students, it be­came self-reproducing. Moreover, the vocational prospectlessness of their post-university situation has also stirred the restiveness of the students.

160   17.The Unemployed Intellectual. In most underdeveloped countries during the colonial period, the unemployed intellec­tual was always a worry to the foreign rulers and to constitu­tional politicians, and a grievance of the leaders of the inde­pendence movement. He still remains a problem in the under­developed

175 countries which have had a higher educational system for some length of time and which are not rapidly expand­ing their governmental staffs. In Ghana or Nigeria, there is a shortage of intellectuals and all graduates can find posts; in Pakistan, which inherited only a very small part of the higher educational

180 system of British India, the government has tried to restrict entrance to the universities, especially in «arts» sub­jects. In India and Egypt, however, despite rapid expansion of opportunities for the employment of intellectuals in govern­ment, there has been a more than proportionate expansion in the number of university

185 graduates and the problem remains as acute as ever.

18.Yet the difficulty is not so much «intellectual unemploy­ment» as under— and mal-employment. Most of the graduates sooner or later, do find posts of one sort or another, but they are not posts which

190 conform with expectations. They are illpaid, unsatisfying in status and tenure, and leave their incum­bents in the state of restlessness which they experienced as students.

From: Edward Shils, «The Intellectuals in the Political Developement of the New States», in Finkle and Gable (eds.) Political Development and Social Change (1966).

 

ISOLATION

From: Edwin O. Reishauer, The Japanese

(1)     One final, vital fact about the geographic setting of the Japanese is their relative isolation. Japan lies off the eastern end of the Old World, in much the same way the British Isles lie off its western end, but

5        at considerably greater distance.  The more than a hundred miles that separate the main Japa­nese islands from Korea is roughly five times the width of the Straits of Dover. In the time of primitive navigation it consti­tuted a considerable barrier, and the roughly four hundred and fifty miles of open sea between Japan

10    and China were even  more formidable.

(2)     Troughout most of its history Japan has been perhaps the most isolated of all the major countries of the world. Until the dawn of oceanic commerce in the sixteenth century it was fitfully in contact

15    with its two closest neighbors, Korea and China, but influences from further afield came to Japan only as filtered through these two lands. In more modem times, Japan's rulers took advantage of their natural geographic isola­tion to fix on the country a firm policy of seclusion from the outside world. For more than

20      two centuries, from 1638 to1853, the Japanese were almost completely sequestered from foreign contacts. It was a unique experience at a time of quick­ening international and interregional relations elsewhere in the world.

25            (3) Thus natural geographic isolation at first, compounded later by human design, forced the Japanese to live more sepa­rately from the rest of the world than any other comparably large and advanced group of people. Or perhaps one should say that this combination of natural and artificial isolation en­abled

30      them more than most other peoples to develop on their own and in their own way. Certainly the Japanese throughout history have been culturally a very distinctive people, diverging sharply even from the patterns in nearby China and Korea, from which much of their higher civilization originally came. Even today,

35      Japan occupies a unique spot in the world as the one major industrialized and fully modernized nation that has a non-Western cultural background.

(3)     Isolation has had a number of important by-products. It has made other people, even the nearby

40      Koreans and Chinese, look on the Japanese as being somehow different and has produced in the Japanese a strong sense of self-identity. Such things are hard to measure, but the Japanese do seem to view the rest of the world, including even their close cultural and racial relatives in Korea and China, with an especially

45      strong «we» and «they» dichotomy. Throughout history they have displayed almost a mania for distinguishing between «foreign» borrowings and elements regarded as natively «Japanese.»

(4)     Isolation thus has ironically caused the Japanese to be acutely aware of anything that comes from

50      outside and to draw special attention to its foreign provenance. The civilization of any country is much more the product of external influences than of native invention. If one subtracted everything from English culture that had foreign roots or antecedents, there would be little left. But borrowing from abroad has

55      usually been a slow and unconscious process or at least went unrecorded. The Japanese, on the other hand, were always sharply conscious of the distinction between «foreign» and «native» and made the fact of cultural borrowing a major theme of their history. Thus they have given themseves and others the

60      impression that they are somehow uniquely cultural borrowers. A myth has grown up that, unlike other peoples, the Japanese are mere mimics, incapable of invention themselves and unable to understand the inner essence of what they have borrowed. In actuality, their isolation has probably forced them to invent a

65      greater part of their culture and develop a more distinctive set of characteristics than almost any comparable unit of people in the world. What distinguishes them is not their imitativeness but rather their distinctiveness and their skill at learning and adapting while not losing their own cultural identity. Others have tried to do the same but with less success.

70         (6) Another by-product of isolation may be Japan's unusual degree of cultural homogeneity, which has already been re­marked upon. Of course, isolation and homogeneity do not necessarily go together, as

75      be can seen in the case of the British Isles. But prolonged separation from the outside world perhaps aided in the spread of uniform cultural patterns throughout the Japanese islands, despite their internal barriers of terrain.

*****

(7) The theme of homogeneousness will reappear frequently in our story, but let me illustrate it here by

80      the racial compo­sition of the Japanese people, which might be regarded as part of the natural setting for Japanese civilization. The Japa­nese, like all other peoples are the product of long and largely unrecorded mixtures. In fact, the diversity of facial types in Japan suggests considerable mixing in the past. But the im

85    portant point is that, whatever their origins, the Japanese today are the most thoroughly unified and

      culturally homo­geneous large bloc of people in the whole world, with the possible exception of the North   Chinese. There are few im­portant physical variations throughout the islands, and, while there are

90     differences in folkways and accents, not unlike those among the English, French, Germans, and Italians, there are none of the sharp divisions as between Gaelic and English speakers and Protestants and Catholics in the British Isles, between speakers of French, Breton, German, and Basque in France, or the profound

95    differences of all sorts between north and south Italians.

(8) Actually the Japanese islands from a sort of cul-de-sac into which various peoples drifted over time and, finding no exit, were forced to mix with later comers. Among these were the Ainu, who may represent

100 an early type of man dating from a period before the modern races became clearly differenti­ated. In any case, they combine some characteristics of the white race, notably their hairiness efface and body, with char­acteristics associated with other races. Thus the Ainu may ac­count for the somewhat greater hairiness

105 of some Japanese as compared to most other members of the Mongoloid race. At one time the Ainu, or people who at least were in part their ancestors, occupied either all or most of the Japanese islands, and until the eighth century they still controlled the northern third of the island of Honshu. But bit by bit they

110 were conquered and absorbed by the main body of Japanese, until to­day fewer than 20,000 Ainu survive as a culturally identifiable group in the northern island of Hokkaido, and even these are on the brink of absorbtion.

115    (9) Basically the Japanese are a Mongoloid people, much like their neighbors on the nearby Asian continent. Both ar­cheology and historical records attest to a broad flow of peoples from northeastern Asia through the Korean Peninsula into Ja­pan, especially during the first seven centuries of the Christian era.

120 There may also have been an earlier flow of people or at least cultural traits from more southerly regions, which gave rise to certain «southern» characteristics that Japanese culture shares with the peoples of Southeast Asia and the South Pa­cific. An early diffusion of peoples and cultures may have oc­curred from

125 South China southward but also eastward to Japan by way of Korea. These «southern» strains may account for some of the mythology of Japan, the flimsy, tropical nature of its early architecture, and the fact that Japanese in physical build are more like the South Chinese than their somewhat taller and sturdier neighbors in Korea and North China.

130      (10) Scraps of the historical record suggest that there was some ethnic diversity in western Japan up until the eighth cen­tury, and at that time the whole north was still in the hands of the ancestors of the Ainu.

135 But there has been no major infu­sion of new blood into Japan since that time. In fact, for over a thousand years immigration of any sort into Japan has been only infinitesimal. There has thus been a long time for racial mingling and the development of a high degree of cultural homogeneity. This process was no doubt

140 aided by the artificial seclusion of Japan from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries and has been further fostered by strong centralized rule since then. But long before this the Japanese had developed a picture of themselves as a racially distinct and pure group, often portrayed in terms of a single great family.

145 It is a concept more frequently encountered among primitive tribal peoples than among the citizens of a large modem nation.

(11) Japan's imperial conquests in modem times and its present global trade have attracted some foreigners into the islands in recent decades. The only sizable group, however, is a Korean community of

150 about 600,000 left over for the most part from the much larger numbers imported during World War II to replace Japanese workers gone off to war. There are also a few tens of thousands of Chinese, mostly merchants, from Japan's former colony in Taiwan or from the mainland, and a few thousand other

155 outlanders from more distant parts of Asia and the West.

(12) Altogether, these outsiders number much less than 1 percent of the population, and only the Koreans constitute any sort of a real ethnic problem. Since they are physically all but identical with the

160 Japanese and are closely allied to them in language, they could be readily absorbed both culturally and racially, and Koreans bom in Japan usually do lose the lan­guage of their parents in much the same way as people ofnon-Englishspeaking origin become linguistically absorbed in the United States. The Japanese, in

165 their extreme ethnocentrism, however, tend to reject Koreans as full members of their soci­ety, while the Koreans, resentful of this attitude and of Japan's colonial domination of their homeland in the past, often cling to their ethnic identity. In fact, the Korean community injects a disruptive element into Japanese

170 society and politics by its passionate adherence to one or the other of the two rival Ko­rean regimes and the respective supporters of these regimes in Japanese politics. The Korean problem, however, is a tiny one compared to that of ethnic diversity in North America or even the problems caused by floods of recent

175 immigrants and industrial workers into the countries of North Europe.

(13) The extraordinary exception to Japanese homogeneity, however, deserves mention. This is the survival from feudal times of a sort of outcast group, known in the past by various names, including the

180 term eta, but now usually called burakumin, or «hamlet people», a contraction from «people of special hamlets.» This group, which may number about 2 per­cent of the population, probably originated from various sources, such as the vanquished in wars or those whose work was con­sidered particularly

185 demeaning. Clearly they included people engaged in leather work or butchery, since the Buddhist preju­dice against the taking of all animal life made others look down on such persons, though, it should be noted, not on the butchers of human life in a feudal society dominated by a military elite.

190     (14) The burakumin have enjoyed full legal equality for more than a century, but social prejudice against them is still extreme. While they are in no way distinguishable physically from the rest of the Japanese and

195 are not culturally distinct except for their generally underprivileged status, most Japanese are loath to have contact with them and are careful to check family records to insure that they avoid intermarriage. In the highly urbanized Japan of today, the burakumin are becoming progressively less

200 recognizable, but their survival as an identifiable group is a surprising contrast to the otherwise almost complete homogeneity of the Japanese people.

(15) One final point should be made about Japan's isola­tion. It is now entirely gone. Japan, in fact, is in a sense the least remote of all nations today. None is more clearly depen­dent on a massive worldwide flow

205 of trade simply to exist. As a result, it has developed strong trade relations with almost all parts of the world. The seas that once cut it off now bind it effectively to all regions. The great distances that once lay be­tween it and all other countries have now shrunk to insignifi­cance. Military destruction can be projected

210 across the oceans in a matter of minutes. Floods of words and visual images are transmitted instantaneously throughout the world. A person can be in both Tokyo and New York on the same calendar day. With the coming ofgiant tankers and container vessels, the costs of oceanic transportation have plummeted as

215 compared to land transport. Mountain ranges, deserts, tropical jungles, and arctic tundra can still be serious barriers to com­merce, and man-made barriers can be even greater, but oceans are now the cement that bind

220 the world together economi­cally. It is for these reasons that, in drawing my population and GNP maps, I largely eliminated the oceans and seas, leaving only enough of them to help demarcate the various countries and continental land masses, and I placed Japan, not on the periphery as it seemed to be in the

225 past, but in the center, a spot to which it is as much entitled as any nation because of its massive involvement in worldwide trade.

(16) The shift from almost complete isolation little more than a century ago to complete involvement today has, in his­torical terms, been sudden. The impact of outside economic and military power as well as

230 of culture and ideas was once cushioned by what were then great intervening distances and also by firm man-made barriers. The psychological effects of isolation still linger on among the Japanese themselves and perhaps in the attitudes of other peoples toward them. Lin­guistically the Japanese remain quite

235 separate, having a most unusual and difficult writing system and a very distinctive lan­guage. But the original geographic isolation and the self-im­posed isolation of more recent times exist no more.

(17) This has been a huge and upsetting change for the Japanese. Attitudes and skills once suitable to

240 their position in the world do not serve them as well today. The adjustment to the new conditions has not been an easy one to make. There is a grave uncertainty in Japanese minds about their position in the world and even about their very identity. What does it mean to be Japanese today and what should Japan's role be

245 in the contemporary world? These are questions the Japanese fre­quently ask themselves, and I shall return to them in the final section of this book.

 

THE USE AND ABUSE OF DRUGS

 

INTRODUCTION

1.    Few people would deny that drug abuse (including alco­holism) is one of the most serious problems we face today. Drug abuse itself is unquestionably a symptom of deeper psy­chological causes.

5        Unfortunately, at the present state of our  knowledge, we are better able to describe the effects of drugs on behavior than to specify the underlying causes of drug abuse.

2.    Some drugs are particularly worrisome because their con­tinued use leads to addiction. For example,

10      chronic heroin abusers find that continued use leads to increased tolerance. Their bodies not only can stand (tolerate) more of the drug, but actually require greater and greater dosages to achieve the same effect. Before long, they develop a physiological depen­dence on the drug, this state of physiological dependence

15    is called addiction. Should they try to «kick the habit», their bodies will react violently.

3.    Addiction should be distinguished from habituation, which is psychological, rather than physiological, dependence. With­drawal from habituation is more likely to be accompanied by emotional

20      rather than physical distress. A person trying to give up cigarettes, for example, is often nervous, tense, and irri­table; the physiological symptoms he or she may have are usu­ally minor.

4.    The chemical nature of a drug determines whether con­tinued abuse will lead to addiction or

25      habituation. Drugs such as heroin, morphine, codein, and the barbiturates are addict­ing. Habituating drugs include marijuana, cocaine, and the amphetamines. On the following pages, we present facts about some of the more commonly used drugs.

I.     MARIJUANA

30   A. Does marijuana Damage the Brain?

5.    The possibility that marijuana use may be hazardous has produced a remarkable polarization among scientists. Those who say that marijuana poses no special hazards espouse their convictions with an

35      evangelistic zeal that borders on fanaticism. Those who think there are hazards argue their case with only slightly less fervor, and all too often scientific debate has fallen by the wayside. This polarization is reinforced by the mass of contradictory evidence that seems to lend support to both sides. The naive

40      individual seeking guidance is often hardpressed to know whom to believe.

6.    Enough evidence has accumulated in the past five years, however, that a dispassionate observer must be forced to two conclusions. There is probably little or no hazard associated with the use of a

45    single joint—or even a few joints — but there is enough evidence suggesting potential dangers from long-term, heavy use of marijuana that prudence would dictate both cau­tion and concern. These dangers include, among other things (Maugh, 1974a), the possibility that long-term, heavy use of marijuana may produce

50      sharp personality changes that lead to a marked deterioration in what is normally considered good men­tal health and may cause potentially irreversible brain injury. If this evidence is corroborated, cannabis (the generic term for marijuana and the more potent hashish) would have to be con­sidered far more hazardous than was previously suspected.

55           7. There is a little question that cannabis has a number of short-term effects on the brain — it could not be psychoactive if it did not. The consequences of these short term effects are uncertain, but few

60      scientists seem willing to suggest that these effects are in themselves hazardous. What is of greater concern is the possibility that continuation of these effects over a pe­riod of time may produce organic brain damage.

8. Tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the principal psychoac-tive constituent of cannabis, has a very high affinity for brain tissues.

      

В. The Amotivational Syndrome

65            9. ...many scientists argue that the continued presence of tetrahydrocannabinol in the brain induces a set of mental char­acteristics termed the «amotivational syndrome». This syndrome is familiar to most

70      clinicians who have treated cannabis users,  and has perhaps best been described by psychiatrists Harold Kolansky and William T. Moore of the University of Pennsyl­vania, Philadelphia.

10. Kolansky and Moore treated 13 individuals between the ages of 20 and 41 years who had smoked

75 cannabis three to ten times a week for at least 16 months. All showed the same set of symptoms. The patients were characteristically apathetic and sluggish in mental and physical responses. There was usually a goalessness and a loss of interest in personal appearance. Con­siderable flattening of affect gave a false

80      impression of calm and well-being; this was usually accompanied by the patients' conviction that they had recently developed emotional matu­rity and insight aided by cannabis. This pseudoequanimity was easily disrupted if the patients were questioned about their per­sonality change, new philosophy, and drug

85      consumption, or if their supplies of cannabis were threatened. The individuals were physically thin, often appeared tired, and exhibited slowed physical movements. They also showed symptoms of mental confusion, a slowed time sense, difficulty with recent memory, and an incapability of completing thoughts

90      during verbal communication.

11. The stereotyped nature of these symptoms and the ap­parent psychological stability of the patients prior to cannabis use led Kolansky and Moore to hypothesize that the syndrome was attributable to

95      cannabis. This hypothesis was supported by the strong correlation between the severity of the symptoms and the duration of cannabis use. It was further strengthened by the observation that the syndrome disappeared when the patients abstained from use of cannabis (although some other investigators have

100  attributed this disappearance to the combination of therapy and the power of suggestion) . In those pa­tients who had used cannabis most heavily and then stopped, however, the symptoms persisted intermittently for as long as 24 months, and the investigators suggest that these individuals may have suffered irreversible brain damage.

 

105   II LSD

12. There are a number of hallucinogenic drugs in use to­day: LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, DMT, and STP. The most well known, frequently used, and thoroughly researched is LSD. LSD (lysergic acid

110 diethylamide) is an extremely potent hallucinogenic drug. As little as four-millionths of an ounce pro­duces marked behavioral changes. Or, stated another way, one ounce can provide more than a quarter of a million average doses. An average dose takes effect extremely rapidly, and the effects usually last from 8 to 12

115 hours. The use of LSD is accompanied by marked physical changes, including elevated blood pressure, temperature, and pulse rate.

13.     The psychological effects of LSD are not always pre­dictable. They seem to vary in the same

120  person from time to time, and depend on such factors as the amount and purity of  the drug taken, the circumstances under which it is used, and the personality characteristics of the individual. Experiences under LSD are sometimes referred to as «trips», which can be either good or bad, or both. The presence of a «guide» does not guarantee that the user will have a good trip.

125     14.  Since LSD is chemically similiar to a substance occuring at some synapses in the brain, it may block or facilitate relay­ing of neural messages. This may account for synesthesia, the translation of one sensory experience into another — feeling an odor, seeing a sound, or hearing a light. It is not unusual for

130  the user to experience marked changes in sensation and per­ception, including distorted perceptions of the self. For ex­ample, one person, while under LSD, reported, «I don't feel like I'm reacting to my own body

135  now. I feel like I'm away from it... My feet feel like they're a million miles apart» (Pol-135 lard et al., 1965). Distorted perceptions of time are also common. Another individual «tripping» on LSD reported, «... I don't know what time it is. I can't even think what time it is...it feels like I've been here for weeks and

140  days...» (Pollard et al., 1965)..., LSD also produces marked variations in emotional states, ranging from inner contentment and oneness with the world to episodes of unmitigated terror. What is sometimes frightening to the user is that he or she may experience con­trasting emotions at one and the same time; for

145  example, both grief and joy. These mood contrasts are somewhat similar to those found in manic-depressive psychosis. LSD may also pro­duce other psychoticlike effects — hallucinations, occasional delusions, and feelings ofdepersonalization or loss of self-iden­tity (Snyder and Lampanella, 1969).

150       15.  Why do people take LSD? The reasons are almost as varied as the types of effects produced. Some individuals say they take LSD because they are curious, because their friends encourage and sanction it, because they want to experience a high, or because they think they will achieve psychological,

155  philosophical, and religious insights. Some individuals, aware of the heightened sensory and perceptual experiences it pro­duces, believe that LSD will make them more creative. In this respect, however, LSD is a complete failure. Artists who have created works while under the influence of LSD have later repudiated

160  the work (Gubar, 1969; McGlothlin and Arnold, 1971).

16       ...In any event, most users of LSD tend either to dis­continue usage or to vastly restrict their intake after two to three years. The reason appears to be the loss of the uniqueness of the trip experience. «As (the

165  experience) is repeated many times, what was initially unique becomes more commonplace and there is a process of diminishing returns. The effect of hallucinogens is indeed a "trip" and trips tend to lose their appeal when repeated too often» (McGlothlin, 1975).

170      17. How dangerous is LSD? One of the delusions occurring in many LSD trips is that the person thinks he or she has developed magical powers and is capable of flying through the air. You may remember reading about incidents in which a person, while on an LSD trip, jumped off a rooftop, with predictable

175  consequences. The fact is that the perceptual distortions can be so overpowering that normal judgement is sus­pended and the individual may attempt almost any act, no matter how foolhardy or dangerous. Some people, when on a «bad trip» or «bummer», experience feelings of panic when overwhelmed by a flood of

180  unprecedented thoughts, emotions, and perceptions. They are powerless to «turn off» the drug and, in their confused state, may think that they are losing their minds.

18. Another experience which can be extremely frightening is the flashback phenomenon, in which

185 days, weeks, or  months later  the individual  experiences  a recurrence  of  some aspects of the  LSD experience, usually of a frightening nature.... It is interesting to note that approximately five percent of LSD us­ers experience flashbacks despite the fact that the body appears to rid itself of LSD within two days

190 (Girdano and Girdano, 1976). Thus, the cause of flashbacks is still an unanswered question.

 

III HEROIN

19. There can be no question about the dangers of heroin use. What may start out innocently enough as

195 a desire to ex­perience a new kind of high may progress with extreme rapidity to an almost continuous type of nightmare existence. As one addict expressed it, «Heroin has all the advantages of death, without its permanence» (Time, 1970). Many addicts find per­manence when they take an overdose.

200     20. The heroin user may begin by snorting or inhaling the drug, progress to «skin popping» (injecting it beneath the skin), and end up «mainlining» it (injecting it directly into the blood­stream) . If a hypodermic syringe is not available, the user may sever an artery and pour the heroin in with a spoon. Once users are

205 «hooked», their entire lives become centered upon this white powder. They will do anything — lie, steal, cheat, even kill — to get that next fix. After a while, they do not even experience a high; they simply need the drug to avoid the terrors of withdrawal. The habit demands more and more, and still more, of the drug.

210 Even a highly paid corporation executive would find it difficult to support such a habit. Usually, the only way the addict can get enough money is through crime or prostitution. Thus, crime associated with heroin addiction is not a direct effect of the drug, but stems from the need to support the habit. In fact, heroin is an

215 extremely effective depressant, which markedly reduces such motivational states as hunger and sex.

21. How is it that this innocent looking white powder can come to dominate the life of the abuser so

220 completely? Within the first minute of heroin injection, there is a sudden, climactic rush of feeling that many users have compared to a sexual orgasm. This extremely pleasurable experience is followed by a «high» which is characterized by lethargy, emotional detach­ment, a sense of well-being, and deep feelings

225 of contentment. To illustrate, a heroin abuser may spend hours before a TV set, watching the dancing images on the screen without becoming emotionally involved in the program content. But then comes the crushing aftermath. As the high begins to subside, so also does the sense of well-being. The euphoria of a

230 moment ago is replaced by gnawing feelings of apprehension and anxiety. The bizarre cycle culminates in an overwhelming sense of panic as the addict begins a frantic search for the next fix.

22. The victims of heroin addiction are legion — the ad­dicts themselves, their families, and those they

235 have robbed or otherwise brutalized in their quest for the «big H.» In recent years another innocent victim of heroin addiction has come to light, the newborn'infant of an addicted mother. Studies of infants born to heroin-addicted mothers have found that more than two-thirds start out life as addicts. Within 96 hours of

240 birth, most will show signs of withdrawal, including extreme irritability, tremors, and vomiting. The incidence of with­drawal symptoms in the newborn depends on how long the mother has been addicted, on the amount of heroin she has taken, and on how close to delivery she was when she took her last dose

245 (Zeison et al., 1971). Traces of drugs taken as  little as ten minutes prior to delivery have been found in newborns.

 

IV. «UPPERS» AND «DOWNERS»

23. Many of the dangerous drugs in use today are not re­stricted to the streetcomer «pusher» as a source

250 of supply. They may be obtained legitimately through a doctor's pre­scription. In fact, one survey showed that about 20 percent of American adults obtained mood-changing drugs through con­ventional medical channels in 1970-1971 (Mellinger et.al., 1972).

255   24. The main kinds of mood-altering drugs in use today are popularly known as «uppers» and  «downers». Uppers are stimu­lants, and include cocaine and the amphetamines (e.g., bennies, dexies, speed). They may or may not be addicting, but they are all habituating. They produce feelings of well

260 being, elation, and increased energy and are generally taken to fight fatigue, alleviate mild depression, and curb appetites.

25. The use of amphetamines was widespread long before their dangers were recognized. Doctors

265 routinely prescribed them for depression, lethargy, and overweight conditions. The present supply of amphetamines is obtained largely through illegal channels. What is particularly insidious about these drugs is that the user rapidly builds up a tolerance and, within a short period of time, may be taking as much as times his or her original dosage (Girdano and Girdano  1976).

270  26. In the past, abusers of this drug have included people who desired to perform beyond their physiological limits (e.g., athletes) and those who wanted to avoid the profound state of depression that commonly accompanies withdrawal. In more recent years, some individuals have started injecting

275 amphetamines directly into their bloodstreams («speed-freaks»).

27. The onset of the drug effect is heralded by a sudden rush or flash, which is followed by feelings of well-being and exaggerated activity. As the stimulating effects begin to wear off, the speed freak will again

280 «shoot speed» in order to maintain the high. In fact, injections may be repeated many times in a single day. When continued injections are finally termi­nated, the reaction phase sets in. The individual lapses into a sleep that may last as long as two days. Upon awakening, the individual passes into a severe depression that

285 may continue for weeks. Heavy users develop severe physical problems as well. Since they lose their desire to eat and sleep, they rapidly lose weight and become highly susceptible to infection. Viral hepatitis, caused by dirty syringes, is increasingly common. Speed kills.

290     28. Speed freaks are sometimes known as «crazies» since they frequently engage in some meaningless compulsive activ­ity that exhausts their excess energy. One group of «crazies» undertook a search for «the stone of stones» and dug until they had uncovered an enormous pile of rocks (Fiddle, 1968).

295            29. Downers, in contrast to uppers, are taken for their calming effects. The most common medical reasons are to promote sleep and to reduce anxiety and tension. The largest group of downers consists of

300  the barbiturates which have a high abuse potential. Tranquilizers, such as Valium, Miltown, and Librium, which are not barbiturates, may also be abused.

30. A person who uses barbiturates commonly considers them «safe» because they are frequently prescribed by doctors. Nevertheless, they are addicting and habituating. Moreover, an overdose or sudden

305 withdrawal can lead to death. When taken in combination with alcohol, even small amounts can become lethal. Thousands of deaths annually are attributable to barbiturates.

From: Fundamentals of Psychology, by Richard R. Runyon, reprinted in Reading by All Means, ed. by Elite Olstein .

 

OUTSIDERS

by Howard J.Becker

(1)   All social groups make rules and attempt at some times and under some circumstances, to enforce

5          them. Social rules  define situations and the kinds of behavior appropriate to them, specifying some actions as «right» and forbidding others as «wrong». When a rule is enforced, the person who is supposed to have broken it may be seen as a special kind of person, one who cannot be trusted to live by the rules agreed on

10      by the group. He is regarded as an outsider.

(2)     But the person who is thus labeled an outsider may have a different view of the matter. He may not accept the rule by which he is being judged and may not regard those who judge him as either competent or

15      legitimately entitled to do so. Hence, a second meaning of the term emerges: the rule-breaker may feel his judges are outsiders.

(3)   In what follows, I will try to clarify the situation and process pointed to by this double-barrelled

20      term: the situa­tions of rule-breaking and rule-enforcement and the processes  by which some people come to break rules and others to enforce them.

(4)   Some preliminary distinctions are in order. Rules may be of a great many kinds. They may be

25      formally enacted into law, and in this case the police power of the state may be used  in enforcing them. In other cases, they represent informal agree­ments, newly arrived at or encrusted with the sanction of age and tradition; rules of this kind are enforced by informal sanc­tions of various kinds.

30        (5) Similarly, whether a rule has the force of law or tradition or is simply the result of consensus, it may be the task of some specialized body, such as the police or the committee on ethics of a professional association, to enforce it; enforcement, on the other hand, may be everyone's job or, at least, the job of everyone in the group to which the rule is meant to apply.

35                (6) Just how far «outside» one is, in either of the senses I have mentioned, varies from case to case. We think of the person who commits a traffic violation or gets a little too drunk at a party as being, after all, not very different from the rest of us and treat his infraction tolerantly. We regard the thief as less like us

40      and punish him severely. Crimes such as murder, rape, or treason lead us to view the violator as a true outsider.

(7) In the same way, some rule-breakers do not think they have been unjustly judged. The traffic

45  violator usually sub­scribes to the very rules he has broken. Alcoholics are often ambivalent, sometimes feeling that those who judge them do not understand them and at other times agreeing that compul­sive drinking is a bad thing. At the extreme, some deviants (homosexuals and drug addicts are good examples) develop full-blown ideologies explaining why they are right and why those who disapprove of and punish them are wrong.

  Definitions of Deviance

50

(8) The outsider — the deviant from group rules — has been the subject of much speculation,

57      theorizing, and scien­tific study. What laymen want to know about deviants is: why do they do it? How can we account for their rule-breaking? What is there about them that leads them to do forbidden things? Scientific research has tried to find answers to these questions. In doing so it has accepted the common

60      sense premise that there is something inherently deviant (qualitatively distinct) about acts that break (or seem to break) social rules. It has also accepted the common-sense assumption that the de­viant act occurs because some characteristic of the person who commits it makes it necessary or inevitable that he should.

65      Scientists do not ordinarily question the label «deviant» when it is applied to particular acts or people but rather take it as given. In so doing, they accept the values of the group making the judgment.

(9) It is easily observable that different groups judge differ­ent things to be deviant. This should alert us

70     to the possibility that the person making the judgment of deviance, the process by which that judgment is arrived at, and the situation in which it is made may all be intimately involved in the phenomenon of deviance. To the degree that the commonsense view of de­viance and the scientific theories that begin with

75      its premises assume that acts that break rules are inherently deviant and thus take for granted the situations and processes of judgment, they may leave out an important variable. If scientists ignore the variable character of the process of judgement, they may by that omission limit the kinds of theories that can be

80     developed and the kind of understanding that can be achieved.

(10) Our first problem, then, is to construct a definition of deviance. Before doing this, let us consider some of the defini­tions scientists now use, seeing what is left out if we take them as a point of a departure for the study of outsiders.

85      (11) The simplest view of deviance is essentially statistical, defining as deviant anything that varies too widely from the average. When a statistician analyzes the results of an agricul­tural experiment, he

90  describes the stalk of corn that is excep­tionally tall and the stalk that is exceptionally short as deviations from the mean of average. Similarly, one can describe anything that differs from what is most common as a devia­tion. In this view, to be left-handed or redheaded is deviant, because most people are right-handed and brunette.

95      (12) So stated, the statistical view seems simple-minded, 95 even trivial. Yet it simplifies the problem by doing away with many questions of value that ordinarily arise in discussions of the nature of deviance. In assessing any particular case, all one need do is calculate the distance of the behavior involved from the

100 average. But it is too simple a solution. Hunting with such a definition, we return with a mixed bag — people who are excessively fat or thin, murderers, redheads, homosexuals, and traffic violators. The mixture contains some ordinarily thought of as deviants and others who have broken no rule at all. The

105 statistical definition of deviance, in short, is too far removed from the concern with rule-breaking which prompts scientific study of outsiders.

(13) A less simple but much more common view of devi­ance identifies it as something essentially

110 pathological, reveal­ing the presence of a «disease». This view rests, obviously, on a medical analogy. The human organism, when it is working efficiently and experiencing no discomfort, is said to be «healthy». When it does not work efficiently, a disease is present. The organ or function that has become deranged is

115 said to be pathological. Of course, there is little disagreement about what constitutes a healthy state of the organism. But there is much less agreement when one uses the notion of pathology analogi­cally, to describe kinds of behavior that are regarded as devi­ant. For people do not agree on what constitutes healthy be

120 havior. It is difficult to find a definition that will satisfy even such a select and limited group as psychiatrists; it is impossible to find one that people generally accept as they accept criteria of health for the organism.

(14) Sometimes people mean the analogy more strictly, because they think of deviance as the product of mental disease. The behavior of a homosexual or drug addict is regarded as the symptom of a mental

125 disease just as the diabetic's diffi­culty in getting bruises to heal is regarded as a symptom of his disease. But mental disease resembles physical disease only in metaphor and the medical metaphor limits what we

130 can see much as the statistical view does. It accepts the lay judgement of something as deviant and, by use of analogy, locates its source within the individual, thus preventing us from seeing the judgment itself as a crucial part of the phenomenon.

135     (15) Some sociologists also use a model of deviance based essentially on the medical notions of health and disease. They look at a society, or some part of a society, and ask whether there are any processes going on in it that tend to reduce its stability, thus lessening its chance of survival. They label such

140 processes deviant or identify them as symptoms of social disorganization. They discriminate between those features of soci­ety which promote stability (and thus are «functional») and those which disrupt stability (and thus are «disfunctional»). Such a view has the great virtue of pointing to areas of possible trouble in a society of which people may not be aware.

145    (16) But it is harder in practice than it appears to be in theory to specify what is functional and what dysfunctional for a society or social group. The question of what the purpose or goal (function) of a group

150 is and, consequently, what things will help or hinder the achievement of that purpose, is very often a political question. Factions within the group disagree and maneuver to have their own definition of the group's func­tion accepted. The function of the group or organization, then, is decided in political conflict,

155 not given in the nature of the organization. If this is true, then it is likewise true that the questions of what rules are to be enforced, what behavior re­garded as deviant, and which people labeled as outsiders must also be regarded as political. The functional view of deviance, by ignoring the political aspect of the phenomenon, limits our understanding.

160    (17) Another sociological view is more relativistic. It iden­tifies deviance as the failure to obey group rules. Once we have described the rules a group enforces on its members, we can say with some precision whether or not a person has violated them and is thus, on this view, deviant.

165            (18) This view is closest to my own, but it fails to give sufficient weight to the ambiguities that arise in deciding which rules are to be taken as the yardstick against which behavior is measured and judged deviant. A society has many groups, each with its own set of rules, and people belong to many-groups

170  simultaneously. A person may break the rules of one group by the very act of abiding by the rules of another group. Is he, then, deviant? Proponents of this definition may object that while ambiguity may arise with respect to the rules peculiar to one or another group in society, there are some rules that are very

175  generally agreed to by everyone, in which case the diffi­culty does not arise. This, of course, is a question of fact, to be settled by empirical research. I doubt there are many such areas of consensus and think it wiser to use a definition that allows us to deal with both ambiguous and unambiguous situations.

  Deviance and the Responses of Others

180

(19) The sociological view I have just discussed defines de­viance as the infraction of some agreed-upon

185 rule. It then goes on to ask who breaks rules, and to search for the factors in  their personalities and life situations that might account for the infractions. This assumes that those who have broken a rule constitute a homogeneous category, because they have com­mitted the same deviant act.

190    (20) Such an assumption seems to me to ignore the central fact about deviance: it is created by society. I do not mean this in the way it is ordinarily understood, in which the causes of deviance are located in the social situation of the deviant or in «social factors» which prompt his action. I mean, rather, that social

195 groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labeling them as outsiders. From this point of view, deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions

200 to an «offender». The deviant is one to whom that label has successfully been applied; deviant behav­ior is behavior that people so label.

(21) Since deviance is, among other things, a consequence of the responses of others to a person's act,

205 students of devi­ance cannot assume that they are dealing with a homogeneous  category when they study people who have been labeled devi­ant. That is, they cannot assume that these people have actu­ally committed a deviant act or broken some rule, because the process of labeling may not be infallible; some

210 people may be labeled deviant who in fact have net broken a rule. Furthermore, they cannot assume that the category of those labeled deviant will contain all those who actually have broken a rule, for many offenders may escape apprehension and thus fail to be included in the population of «deviants» they study. Insofar as

215 the category lacks homogeneity and fails to include all the  cases that belong in it, one cannot reasonably expect to find common factor of personality or life situation that will ac­count for the supposed deviance.

(22) What, then, do people who have been labeled deviant have in common? At the least, they share the

220 label and the experience of being labeled as outsiders. I will begin my analy­sis with this basic similarity and view deviance as the product of a transaction that takes place between some social group and one who is viewed by that group as a rulebreaker. I will be less concerned with the personal and social

225 characteristics of deviants than with the process by which they come to be thought of as outsiders and their reactions to that judgment.

(23) Malinowski discovered the usefullness of this view for understanding the nature of deviance many years ago, in his study of the Trobriand Islands:

230    (24) One  day an outbreak  of wailing  and  a  great commo­tion told  me that a death had occurred somewhere in the neigh­borhood. I was informed that Kima'i, a young lad of my ac­quaintance, of sixteen or

235 so, had fallen from a coco-nut palm and killed himself. ... I found that another youth had been severely wounded by some mysterious coincidence. And at the funeral there was obviously a general feeling of hostility be­tween the village where the boy died and that into which his body was carried for burial.

240    (25) Only much later was I able to discover the real meaning of these events. The boy had committed suicide. The truth was that he had broken the rules of exogamy, the partner in his crime being his maternal cousin, the daughter of his mother's sister. This had been known and generally disapproved of but nothing

245 was done until the girl's discarded lover, who had wanted to marry her and who felt personally injured, took the initiative. This rival threatened first to use black magic against the guilty youth, but this had not much effect. Then one evening he insulted the culprit in public — accusing him in the hearing of the whole

250 community of incest and hurling at him certain expressions intolerable to a native.

(26) For this there was only one remedy; only one means of escape remained to the unfortunate youth. Next morning he put on festive attire and ornamentation, climbed a coco-nut palm and addressed the

255 community, speaking from among the palm leaves and bidding them farewell. He explained the rea­sons for his desperate deed and also launched forth a veiled accusation against the man who had driven him to his death, upon which it became the duty of his clansmen to avenge him. Then he wailed aloud, as is the

260 custom, jumped from a palm some sixty feet high and was killed on the spot. There fol-lowed a fight within the village in which the rival was wounded; and the quarrel was repeated during the funeral...

(27) If you were to inquire into the matter among the Trobrianders, you would find... that the natives

265 show horror at the idea of violating the rules of exogamy and that they believe that sores, disease and even death might follow clan incest. This is the ideal of native law, and in moral matters it is easy and pleasant strictly to adhere to the ideal — when judging the conduct of others or expressing an opinion about conduct

270 in general.

(28) When it comes to the application of morality and ide­als to real life, however, things take on a different complexion. In the case described it was obvious that the facts would not tally with the ideal of

275 conduct. Public opinion was neither outraged by the knowledge of the crime to any extent, nor did it react directly — it had to be mobilized by a public statement of the crime and by insults being hurled at the culprit by an interested party. Even then he had to carry out the punishment himself... Probing further into

280 the matter and collecting concrete information, I found that the breach of exogamy — as regards intercourse and not marriage — is by no means a rare occurrence, and public opinion is lenient, though decidedly hypocritical. If the affair is carried on sub rosa with a certain amount of decorum, and if no one

285 in particular stirs up trouble — «public opinion» will gossip, but not demand any harsh punishment. If, on the contrary, scandal breaks out — every­one turns against the guilty pair and by ostracism and insults one or the other may he driven to suicide.*

 * Bronislaw Malinowski. Crime and Custom in Savage Society (New York: Humanities Press, 1926), pp. 77-80.

 

290     (29) Whether an act is deviant, then, depends on how other people react to it. You can commit clan incest and suffer from no more than gossip as long as no one makes a public accusa­tion; but you will be driven to your death if the accusation is made. The point is that the response of other people has to be regarded

295  as problematic. Just because one has committed an  infraction of a rule does not mean that others will  respond as though this had happened. (Conversely, just because one has not violated a rule does not mean that he may not be treated, in some circumstances, as though he had).

300    (30) The degree to which other people will respond to a given act as deviant varies greatly. Several kinds of variation seem worth noting. First of all, there is variation over time. A person believed to have committed a given «deviant» act may at one time be responded to much more leniently than he would be at

305 some other time. The occurrence of «drives» against various kinds of deviance illustrates this clearly. At various times, enforcement officials may decide to make an all-out attack on some particular kind of deviance, such as gambling, drug ad­diction, or homosexuality. It is obviously much more danger­ous to

310 engage in one of these activities when a drive is on than at any other time. (In a very interesting study of crime news in Colorado newspapers, Davis found that the amount of crime reported in Colorado newspapers showed very little association with actual changes in the amount of crime taking place in

315 Colorado. And, further, that people's estimate of how much increase there had been in crme in Colorado was associated with the increase in the amount of crime news but not with any increase in the amount of crime).

(31) The degree to which an act will-be treated as deviant depends also on who commits the act and who

320 feels he has been harmed by it. Rules tend to be applied more to some persons than others. Studies of juvenile delinquency make the point clearly. Boys from middle-class areas do not get as far in the legal process when they are apprehended as do boys from slum areas. The middle-class boy is less likely, when

325 picked up by the police, to be taken to the station; less likely when taken to the station to be booked; and it is extremely unlikely that he will be convicted and sentenced. This variation occurs even though the original infraction of the rule is the same in the two cases. Similarly, the law is differentially applied to

330 Negroes and whites. It is well known that a Negro believed to have attacked a white woman is much more likely to be punished than a white man who commits the same offense; it is only slightly less well known

335 that a Negro who murders another Negro is much less likely to be punished than a white man who commits murder. This, of course, is one of the main points of Sutherland's analysis of white-collar crime: crimes committed by corporations are almost always prosecuted as civil cases, but the same crime committed by an individual is ordinarily treated as a criminal offense.

340     (32) Some rules are enforced only when they result in certain consequences. The unmarried mother furnishes a clear example. Vincent points out that illicit sexual relations seldom result in severe punishment

345 or social censure for the offenders. If, however, a girl becomes pregnant as a result of such activities, the reaction of others is likely to be severe. (The illicit pregnancy is also an interesting example of the differential enforcement of rules on different categories of people. Vincent notes that unmarried fathers escape the severe censure visited on the mother).

350            (33)  Why repeat these commonplace observations?  Because, taken  together, they  support the proposition that deviance is not a simple quality, present in some kinds of behavior and absent in others. Rather, it is the product of a process which involves responses of other people to the behavior.

355  The same behavior may be an infraction of the rules at one time and not at another; may be an infraction when committed by one per­son, but not when committed by another; some rules are bro­ken with impunity,

360  others are not. In short, whether a given act is deviant or not depends in part on the nature of the act (that is, whether or not it violates some rule) and in part on what other people do about it.

(34) Some people may object that this is merely a termino­logical quibble, that one can, after all, define

365 terms any way he wants to and that if some people want to speak of rule-breaking behavior as deviant without reference to the reactions of others,they are free to do so. This, of course, is true. Yet it might be worthwhile to refer to such behavior as rule-breaking behavior and reserve the term deviant for those

370 labeled as de­viant by some segment of society. I do not insist that this usage be followed. But it should be clear that insofar as a scientist uses «deviant» to refer to any rulebreaking behavior and takes as his subject of study only those who have been labeled devi­ant, he will he hampered by the disparities between the two categories.

375     (35) If we take as the object of our attention behavior which comes to be labeled as deviant, we must recognize that we cannot know whether a given act will be categorized as deviant until the response of others has occurred. Deviance is not a quality that lies in behavior itself, but in the interaction between the person who commits an act and those who re­spond to it.

From Howard J. Becker, Outsiders, Studies in the Sociol­ogy of Deviance, (1963)

 

STUDENT POWER IN MIDDLE AGES

by Allan B. Cobban

1 Student power is virtually coeval with the emergence of the medieval universities. In southern Europe it became en­demic, in one form or another, for about 200 years. The mo­tives that gave rise to medieval

5          student rebellion find a distant echo in the student scene of the 1960s and 1970s. But there are important dissimilarities and it would be unhistorical to press analogies too far. Medieval students had, for the most part, a highly utilitarian view of the university as an institution of direct community relevance that might

10      well be regarded as too narrowly conceived by a large proportion of present-day stu­dents and staff. The priority of educational utility conditioned students into accepting innately conservative attitudes vis-a-vis the Establishment. Revolutionary student activity in the medi­eval situation was rarely directed against the

15      prevailing order of things; it seems to have been either a defence mechanism or was channelled towards the winning of greater student partici­pation in university structures.

2 For the majority of medieval undergraduates education was a severely practical business; there was

20      simply not the surplus wealth available to support nonvocational courses on any scale. As the student was bereft of a state system of financial aid and as the rate of graduate production was often in excess of the rate of graduate absorption, the pressure on the average student was to seek, as rapidly as possible, a

25      lucrative employment within the established order. As vehicles for community needs, the medieval universities were largely vocational schools training students in the mastery of areas of knowledge and

30      analytical skills which could be utilised in the service of the State or Church, in teaching or in the secular professions of law and medicine. The movements of student protest in the Middle Ages were not the explosive outgrowth of pent-up anti-establishment feelings. Nowhere does it appear that direct stu­dent

35      action within the universities was orientated towards the ultimate reformation of the wider community. To imagine that medieval students thought of the university as a microcosm of society would be anachronistic. Medieval student power did not embody this degree of self-conscious awareness.

3 Nor were student protest movements concerned with the content of university courses if by this is

40      meant the selection of the ingredients of the syllabus or curriculum. The medieval undergraduate was not faced with the bewildering range of options that confront the modem student. There was an agreed core of studies in the medieval universities derived from a se­ries of time-honoured texts and supplemented by the

45      commentaries of contemporary academics. It would appear that medieval students acquiesced in current educational assump­tions and none of their rebellions had as its aim, the widening or modernisation of the syllabus.

50                4 The earliest European universities were not specifically founded but were spontaneous creations which evolved in the course of the twelfth century. They first emerged at Bologna and Paris and these were the archetype which determined the twofold pattern of university organisation in the Middle Ages: the

58      latter, Paris, gave rise to that of the masters' university; the former, Bologna, to that of the concept of the student-con­trolled university.

5 The first student power movement in European history had crystallised at the University of Bologna

60  by the early thir­teenth century. The idea of guilds of students directing the affairs of a university and keeping the teaching staff in a state of subservience has been alien to European thinking for about 600 years. But one of the two original universities was, shortly after it came into being, a student-dominated

65   society and the prototype for a large family of universities either partially or mainly controlled by students.

6  The rise of the student university at Bologna has to be seen in relation to the prevailing concept of Italian citizenship, a possession of the utmost importance in a country fragmented by the spread of

70      communes. The students who had converged on Bologna to study law from many parts of Europe were, in Bologna, non-citizens and, as such, aliens who were vulner­able in the face of city law. The teaching doctors should have been the natural protectors of their students: this is what had happened at Paris. But at

75      Bologna the commune succeeded in drawing the doctors within its orbit and driving a wedge be­tween the teachers and their students. Without their natural protectors the students had to take the initiative in the matter of organisational defence. By the beginning of the thirteenth century the pristine contractual

80      arrangements that had operated between individual students and doctors had been super­seded by a student guild powerful enough to exact the obedi­ence of the doctors to its members.

7      It is important to stress that at first the student guild at Bologna was a mutual benefit society designed

85      to give its members protection under city law and to provide a measure of defence against hostile parties. The student movement did not, from the start, set out to gain control over the university and its teaching staff. There was no blueprint plan as to how a university ought to be organised. Possibly the students never

90      thought about this. But in order to survive they had to adopt a trade union attitude and carve out for themselves a position of strength within the university. Once this had been attained the momentum of their power could not be stemmed. In the course of the thirteenth century the students moved from the defensive

95      to the offensive and this resulted in their winning the ini­tiative in university affairs: this was the first student take-over bid in European history.

8      Although the teaching doctors had to accept the reality of student power they never conceded its

100  legality: that is to say, they contested the alleged right of the students to organise themselves into guilds with elected officers, statutes and legal independence. It was argued that the students by themselves did not constitute a profession: students were merely the pupils of the doctors, the academic equivalents of trade

105  apprentices and, as such, were devoid of professional status. But the reluc­tance to give a legal recognition to the student guild could not check student militancy and the teaching doctors were forced to acquiesce in a university situation wherein they were very obviously employed as the functionaries of the students.

110      9  It needs to be stated that a fair number of the Bologna law students were older than the majority of students in northern Europe. It has been reckoned that their average age lay be­tween eighteen and twenty-five, and some were on the borders of thirty upon entry to the university. And it is established that a

115  sizeable proportion held ecclesiastical benefices or offices upon their enrolment as law students, and that a significant number of them were laymen from easy social backgrounds. It is clear, then, that many of the

120  Bologna law students were young men of substance with experience of the world and accustomed to administering responsible offices in society, all of which makes the fact of students controlling power in a uni­versity more intelligible.

10   Under the student governmental system at Bologna the teaching doctors were excluded from voting

125  in the university assemblies, although they may have been allowed as a conces­sion, to attend as observers. Yet all lecturers had to obey the statutory wisdom emanating from these student congregations. The students seem to have elected their prospective teachers several months in advance of the beginning of the

130  academic session in October. Upon election the successful doctors took an oath to submit to the student rector in all matters affecting the life of the university. Student controls over the lecturing system were impressive. The lecturer's life proceeded in an anxious atmosphere of impending fines. A lecturer was fined

135  if he started his lecture a minute late or if he continued after the prescribed time: indeed, if the latter occurred the students were required to leave the room without delay. At the opening of the academic session the students and the teaching doctors elected by the students reached agreement on how the

140  material of the lecture course was to be distributed over the year. The harassed lecturer had to reach stipulated points in the set texts by certain dates in the session. Failure to do so resulted in a heavy fine. It

145  would hardly be an exaggeration to say that lec­turing performance in thirteenth-century Bologna was continuously assessed by the students on both a qualitative and quantitative basis. A doctor who glossed over a difficulty or who failed to assign an equal emphasis to all parts of the syllabus would incur financial

150  penalties. As a surety for his lectur­ing performance the lecturer, at the beginning of the session, had to deposit a specified sum with a city banker, acting for the students. From this deposit, a student review court would authorise the deduction of fines incurred by the lecturer for infringements of the statutes. If the fines

155  were of such an order of magnitude that the first deposit was used up, the lecturer was required to make a second deposit. Refusal to comply was pointless: no lecturer with fines outstanding was permitted to collect student fees for his teaching and thus his source of university income would be cut off. In any event,

160  a recalcitrant doctor could be rendered less obstinate by means of the student boycotting machinery which was fundamental to the work­ings of the student-university. Even in normal circumstances a lecturer had to have an audience of at least five students at every ordinary lecture: if he failed to attract that number he

165  himself was deemed to be absent and incurred the stipulated fine. This whole gamut of student controls was underpinned by a system of denunciations by secretly elected students who spied on the doctors. Controls extended even into private areas: for example, if a lecturer got married the students allowed him only one day and one night for his honeymoon.

From: History Today, Vol. 30, February 1980.

 

ARE CRIMINALS MADE OR BORN?

by Richard J.Herrnstein and James Q. Wilson

Richard J. Hermstein is a professor of psychology and James Q. Wilson a professor of government at Harvard. This article is adapted from their book «Crime and Hu­man Nature»

1 A revolution in our understanding of crime is quietly over­throwing some established doctrines. Until recently, criminolo-gists looked for the causes of crime almost entirely in the of­fenders' social

5          circumstances. There seemed to be no shortage of circumstances to blame: weakened, chaotic or broken fami­lies, ineffective schools, antisocial gangs, racism, poverty, un­employment. Criminologists took seriously, more so than many other students of social behavior, the famous dictum of the French sociologist

10      Emile Durkheim: Social facts must have social explanations. The sociological theory of crime had the unquestioned support of prominent editorialists, commenta­tors, politicians and most thoughtful people.

2 Today, many learned journals and scholarly works draw a different picture. Sociological factors have

15      not been abandoned, but increasingly it is becoming clear to many scholars that crime is the outcome of an interaction between social factors and certain biological factors, particularly for the offenders who, by repeated crimes, have made public places dangerous. The idea is still controversial, but increasingly, to the

20      old question «Are criminals bom or made?» the answer seems to be: both. The causes of crime lie in a combination of predisposing bio­logical traits channeled by social circumstance into criminal behavior. The traits alone do not inevitably lead to crime; the circumstances do not make criminals of everyone; but

25      together they create a population responsible for a large fraction of America's problem of crime in the streets.

3 Evidence that criminal behavior has deeper roots than social circumstances has always been right at

30      hand, but social science has, until recent years, overlooked its implications. As far as the records show, crime everywhere and throughout his­tory is disproportionately a young man's pursuit. Whether men are 20 or more times as likely to be arrested as women, as is the case in Malawi or Bmnei, or only four to six

35      times as likely, as in the United States or France, the sex difference in crime statistics is universal. Similarly, 18-year-olds may some­times be four times as likely to be criminal as 40-year-olds, while at other times only twice as likely. In the United States, more than half of all arrests for seriously property

40      crimes are of 20-year-olds or younger. Nowhere have older persons been as criminal as younger ones.

4 It is easy to imagine purely social explanations for the effects of age and sex on crime. Boys in many societies are trained by their parents and the society itself to play more roughly and aggressively than girls.

45  Boys are expected to fight back, not to cry, and to play to win. Likewise, boys in many cultures are denied adult responsibilities, kept in a state of prolonged dependence and confined too long in schools that many of them find unrewarding. For a long time, these factors were thought to be the whole story.

50               5 Ultimately, however, the very universality of the age and sex differences in crime have alerted some social scientists to the implausibility of a theory that does not look beyond the accidents of particular societies. If cultures as different as Japan's and Sweden's, England's and Mexico's, have sex and age

55      differences in crime, then perhaps we should have suspected from the start that there was something more fundamental going on than parents happening to decide to raise their boys and girls differently. What is it about boys, girls and their parents, in societies of all sorts, that leads them to emphasize, rather than

60      overcome, sex differences? Moreover, even if we believed that every society has arbitrarily decided to inculcate aggressiveness in males, there would still be the greater criminality among young males to explain. After all, in some cultures, young boys are not denied adult responsibilities but are kept out of

65      school, put to work tilling the land and made to accept obligations to the society.

6      But it is no longer necessary to approach questions about the sources of criminal behavior merely

70      with argument and supposition. There is evidence. Much crime, it is agreed, has an aggressive component, and Eleanor Emmons Maccoby, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, and Carol Nagy Jacklin, a psychologist now at the University of Southern Cali­fornia, after reviewing the evidence on sex

75  differences in ag­gression, concluded that it has a foundation that is at least in part biological. Only that conclusion can be drawn, they said, from data that show that the average man is more aggressive than the average woman in all known societies, that the sex difference is present in infancy well before evidence of

80      sex-role socialization by adults, that similar sex differences turn up in many of our biological relatives — monkeys and apes. Human aggression has been directly tied to sex hormones, particularly male sex hormones, in experiments on athletes engaging in competitive sports and on prisoners known for violent or

85      domi­neering behavior. No single line of evidence is decisive and each can be challenged, but all together they convinced Drs. Maccoby and Jacklin, as well as most specialists on the biology of sex differences, that the sexual conventions that assign males the aggressive roles have biological roots.

80           7 That is also the conclusion of most researchers about the developmental forces that make adolescence and young adult­hood a time of risk for criminal and other nonconventional behavior. This is when powerful new drives awaken, leading to frustrations that foster behavior unchecked by the internalized

95      prohibitions of adulthood. The result is usually just youthful rowdiness, but, in a minority of cases it passes over the line into crime.

7      The most compelling evidence of biological factors for criminality comes from two studies — one of

100   twins, the other of adopted boys. Since the 1920's it has been understood that twins may develop from a single fertilized egg, resulting in identical genetic endowments — identical twins — or from a pair of separately fertilized eggs that have about half their genes in common — fraternal twins. A standard

105  procedure for estimating how important genes are to a trait is to compare the similarity between identical twins with that between fraternal twins. When identical twins are clearly more similar in a trait than fraternal twins, the trait probably has high heritability.

8      There have been about a dozen studies of criminality using twins. More than 1,500 pairs of twins

110   have been studied in the United States, the Scandinavian countries, Japan, West Germany, Britain and elsewhere, and the result is qualitatively the same everywhere. Identical twins are more likely to have similar criminal records than fraternal twins. For example, the late Karl 0. Christiansen, a Danish

115  criminologist, using the Danish Twin Register, searched police, court and prison records for entries regarding twins bom in a certain region of Denmark between 1881 and 1910. When an identical twin had a criminal record, Christiansen found, his or her co-twin was more than twice as likely to have one also than

120  when a fraternal twin had a criminal record.

9      In the United States, a similar result has recently been reported by David Rowe, a psychologist at the University of Oklahoma, using questionnaires instead of official records to measure criminality. Twins in

125  high school in almost all the school districts of Ohio received questionnaires by mail, with a promise of confidentiality as well as a small payment if the questionnaires were filled out and returned. The twins were asked about their activities, including their delinquent behav­ior, about their friends and about their co-

130  twins.The identical twins were more similar in delinquency than the fraternal twins. In addition, the twins who shared more activities with each other were no more likely to be similar in delinquency than those who shared fewer activities.

135      11 No single method of inquiry should be regarded as conelusive. But essentially the same results are found in studies of adopted children. The idea behind such studies is to find a sample of children adopted early in life, cases in which the criminal histories of both adopting and biological parents are known. Then,

140  as the children grow up, researchers can discover how predictive of their criminality are the family histo­ries of their adopting and biological parents. Recent studies show that the biological family history contributes substantially to the adoptees' likelihood of breaking the law.

145      12 For example, Samoff Mednick, a psychologist at the University of Southern California, and his associates in the United States and Denmark have followed a sample of several thousand boys adopted in Denmark between 1927 and 1947. Boys with criminal biological parents and noncriminal adopt­ing parents

150  were more likely to have criminal records than those with noncriminal biological parents and criminal adopt­ing parents. The more criminal convictions a boy's natural parents had, the greater the risk of criminality for boys being raised by adopting parents who had no records. The risk was unrelated to

155  whether the boy or his adopting parents knew about the natural parents' criminal records, whether the natu­ral parents committed their crimes before or after the boy was given up for adoption, or whether the boy was adopted imme­diately after birth or a year or two later. The results of this study have been confirmed in

160  Swedish and American samples 160 of adopted children.

13 Because of studies like these, many sociologists and crimi-nologists now accept the existence of genetic factors contribut­ing to criminality. When there is disagreement, it is about how large the genetic

165 contribution to crime is and about how the criminality of biological parents is transmitted to their chil­dren.

14 Both the twin and adoption studies show that genetic contributions are not alone responsible for

170 crime — there is, for example, some increase in criminality among boys if their adopted fathers are criminal even when their biological parents are not, and not every co-twin of a criminal identical twin becomes criminal himself. Although it appears, on average, to be substantial, the precise size of the genetic

175 contribution to crime is probably unknowable, particularly since the measures of criminality itself are now so crude.

15 We have a bit more to go on with respect to the link that transmits a predisposition toward crime from parents to chil­dren. No one believes there are «crime genes», but there are two major attributes that

180 have, to some degree, a heritable base and that appear to influence criminal behavior. These are in­telligence and temperament. Hundreds of studies have found that the more genes people share, the more likely they are to resemble each other intellectually and temperamentally.

185     16 Starting with studies in the 1930s, the average offender in broad samples has consistently scored 91 to 93 on 195 I.Q. tests for which the general population's average is 100. The typical offender does worse on the verbal items of intelligence tests than on the nonverbal items but is usually below average on both.

190    17 Criminologists have long known about the correlation between criminal behavior and I.Q., but many of them have discounted it for various reasons. Some have suggested that the correlation can he

195  explained away by the association between low socioeconomic status and crime, on the one hand, and that between low I.Q. and low socioeconomic status, on the other. These criminologists say it is low socioeconomic status, rather than low I.Q., that fosters crime. Others have ques­tioned whether I.Q. tests

200really measure intelligence for the populations that are at greater risk for breaking the law. The low scores of offenders, the argument goes, betray a culturally deprived background or alienation from our society's values rather than low intelligence. Finally, it is often noted that the offenders in some studies have been caught for their crimes. Perhaps the ones who got away have higher I.Q.s.

205            18 But these objections have proved to be less telling than they once seemed to be. There are, for example, many poor law-abiding people living in deprived environments, and one of their more salient

210  characteristics is that they have higher I.Q. scores than those in the same environment who break the law.

19 Then, too, it is a common misconception that I.Q. tests are invalid for people from disadvantaged backgrounds. If what is implied by this criticism is that scores predict academic po­tential or job

215 performance differently for different groups, then the criticism is wrong. A comprehensive recent survey spon­sored by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that «tests predict about as well for one group as for another». And that some highly intelligent criminals may well be good at eluding capture is fully

220 consistent with the belief that offenders, in general, have lower scores than nonoffenders.

20 If I.Q. and criminality are linked, what may explain the link? There are several possibilities. One is that low scores on I.Q. tests signify greater difficulty in grasping the likely conse­quences of action or in

225 learning the meaning and significance of moral codes. Another is that low scores, especially on the verbal component of the tests, mean trouble in school, which leads to frustration, thence to resentment, anger and delin­quency. Still another is that persons who are not as skillful as others in expressing themselves verbally

230 may find it more rewarding to express themselves in ways in which they will do better, such as physical threat or force.

21  For some repeat offenders, the predisposition to crimi­nality may be more a matter of temperament

235  than intelligence. Impulsiveness, insensitivity to social mores, a lack of deep and enduring emotional attachments to others and an appetite for danger are among the temperamental characteristics of high-rate offenders. Temperament is, to a degree, heritable, though not as much so as intelligence. All parents know

240  hat their children, shortly after birth, begin to exhibit certain characteristic ways of behaving — they are placid or fussy, shy or bold. Some of the traits endure, among them aggressiveness and hyperactivity, although they change in form as the child devel­ops. As the child grows up, these traits, among others, may

245  gradually unfold into a disposition toward unconventional, defiant or antisocial behavior.

22  Lee Robins, a sociologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, reconstructed 30 years ofthe lives of more than 500 children who were patients in the 1920's at a child guidance clinic in

250  St. Louis. She was interested in the early precursors of chronic sociopathy, a condition of antiso­cial personality that often includes criminal behavior as one of its symptoms. Adult sociopaths in her sample who did not suffer from psychosis, mental retardation or addiction, were, without exception antisocial

255  before they were 18. More than half of the male sociopaths had serious symptoms before they were 11. The main childhood precursors were truancy, poor school performance, theft, running away, recklessness, slovenliness, impulsiveness and guiltlessness. The more symp­toms in childhood, the greater the risk of

260  sociopathy in adulthood.

23  Traits that foreshadow serious, recurrent criminal be­havior have been traced all the way back to behavior patterns such as hyperactivity and unusual fussiness, and neurological signs such as atypical brain

265  waves or reflexes. In at least a minority of cases, these are detectable in the first few years of life. Some of the characteristics are sex-linked. There is evi­dence that newborn females are more likely than newborn males to smile, to cling to their mothers, to be receptive to touching and talking, to be sensitive to certain

270  stimuli, such as being touched by a cloth, and to have less upperbody strength. Mothers certainly treat girls and boys differently, but the differences are not simply a matter of the mother's choice—female babies are more responsive than male babies to precisely the kind of treat­ment that is regarded as «feminine». When

275  adults are asked to play with infants, they play with them in ways they think are appropriate to the infants' sexes. But there is also some evi­dence that when the sex of the infant is concealed, the behav­ior of the adults is influenced by the conduct of the child.

280      24. Premature infants or those bom with low birth weights have a special problem. These children are vulnerable to any adverse circumstances in their environment — including child abuse — that may foster crime. Although nurturing parents can compensate for adversity, cold or inconsistent parents may

285  exacerbate it. Prematurity and low birth weight may result from poor prenatal care, a bad diet or excessive use of alcohol or drugs. Whether the bad care is due to poverty, ignorance or anything else, here we see criminality arising from biological, though not necessarily genetic, factors. It is now known that these

290  babies are more likely than normal babies to be the victims of child abuse.

     25. We do not mean to blame child abuse on the victim by saying that premature and low-birth-weight infants are more difficult to care for and thus place a great strain on the parents. But unless parents are

295  emotionally prepared for the task of caring for such children, they may vent their frustration at the infant's unresponsiveness by hitting or neglecting it. Whatever it is in parent and child that leads to prematurity or low birth weight is compounded by the subsequent interaction between them. Similarly, children with low

300  I.Q.s may have difficulty in understanding rules, but if their parents also have poor verbal skills, they may have difficulty in communicating rules, and so each party to the conflict exacerbates the defects of the other.

     26. The statement that biology plays a role in explaining human behavior, especially criminal behavior,

305  sometimes elicits a powerful political or ideological reaction. Fearful that what is being proposed is a crude biological determinism, some critics deny the evidence while others wish the evidence to be confined to scientific journals. Scientists who have merely pro­posed studying the possible effects of chromosomal

310  abnormalities on behavior have been ruthlessly,attacked by other scientists, as have those who have made public the voluminous data show­ing the heritability of intelligence and temperament.

27. Some people worry that any claim that biological factors influence criminality is tantamount to

315  saying that the higher crime rate of black compared to white Americans has a genetic basis. But no responsible work in the field leads to any such conclusion. The data show that of all the reasons people vary in their crime rates, race is far less important than age, sex, intelligence and the other individual

320  factors that vary within races. Any study of the causes of crime must therefore first consider the individual factors. Differences among races may have many explanations, most of them having nothing to do with biology.

325       28. The intense reaction to the study of biological factors in crime, we believe, is utterly misguided. In fact, these discover­ies, far from implying that «criminals are bom» and should be locked up forever, suggest new and imaginative ways of reduc­ing criminality by benign treatment. The opportunity we have is

330  precisely analogous to that which we had when the biological bases of other disorders were established. Mental as well as physical illness — alcoholism, learning disabilities of various sorts, and perhaps even susceptibilities to drug addiction — now seem to have genetic components. In each case, new

335  understanding energized the search for treatment and gave it new direction. Now we know that many forms of depression can be success­fully treated with drugs; in time we may learn the same of Alzheimer's disease. Alcoholics are helped when they under­stand that some persons, because of their predisposition to­ward

340  addiction to alcohol, should probably never consume it at all. A chemical treatment of the predisposition is a realistic possibility. Certain types of slow learners can already be helped by special programs.

29 Crime, admittedly, may be a more difficult program. So many different acts are criminal that it is

345 only with considerable poetic license that we can speak of «criminality» at all. The bank teller who embezzles $500 to pay off a gambling debt is not engaging in the same behavior as a person who takes $500 from a liquor store at the point of a gun or one who causes $500 worth of damage by drunkenly

350 driving his car into a parked vehicle. Moreover, crime, unlike alcoholism or dys­lexia, exposes a person to the formal condemnation of society and the possibility of imprisonment. We naturally and rightly worry about treating all «criminals» alike, or stigmatizing per­sons whom we think might become criminal by

355 placing them in special programs designed to prevent criminality.

30 But these problems are not insurmountable barriers to better ways of thinking about crime prevention. Though crimi­nals are of all sorts, we know that a very small fraction of all young males

360 commit so large a fraction of serious street crime  that we can properly blame these chronic offenders for most  such crime. We also know that chronic offenders typically be­gin their misconduct at an early age. Early family and pre­school programs may be far better repositories for the crime-prevention dollar than

365 rehabilitation programs aimed — usually futilely — at the 19 — or 20 year-old veteran offender. Preven­tion programs risk stigmatizing children, but this may be less of a risk than is neglect. If stigma were a problem to be avoided at all costs, we would have to dismantle most special-needs education programs.

370        31 There is also a case for redirecting research into the causes of crime in ways that take into account the interaction of biological and social factors. It took years of patiently fol­lowing the life histories of many men and women to establish the linkages between smoking or diet and disease; it will also take

375  years to unravel the complex and subtle ways in which intelligence, temperament, hormonal levelsand other traits combine with family circumstances and later experiences in school and elsewhere to produce human character.

From: The New York Times Magazine, August 4, 1985.

 

WHAT IS A HISTORICAL FACT?

by E.H.Carr

What is a historical fact? This is a crucial question into which we must look a little more closely. According to the commonsense view, there are certain basic facts which are the same for all historians, and

5          which form, so to speak, the backbone of history — the fact, for example, that the Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. But this view calls for two obser­vations. In the first place, it is not with facts like these that the historian is primarily concerned. It is no doubt important to know that the great battle was fought in

10      1066 and not in 1065 10 or 1067, and that it was fought at Hastings and not at Eastbourne or Brighton. The historian must not get these things wrong. But when points of this kind are raised, I am reminded of Housman's remark that «accuracy is a duty, not a virtue». To praise a historian for-his accuracy is like

15      praising an architect for using well-seasoned timber or properly mixed concrete in his building. It is a necessary condition of his work, but not his essential function. It is precisely for matters of this kind that the historian is entitled to rely on what have been called the «auxiliary sciences» of history — archaeology,

20      epigraphy, numismatics, chronology, and so forth. The historian is not required to have the special skills which enable the expert to determine the origin and period of a fragment of pottery or marble, to decipher

25      an obscure inscription, or to make the elaborate astronomical calculations necessary to establish a precise date. These so-called basic facts, which are the same for all historians, commonly belong to the category of the raw materials of the historian rather than of history itself. The sec­ond observation is that the necessity

30      to establish these basic facts rests not on any quality in the facts themselves, but on an a priori decision of the historian. It used to be said that facts speak for themselves. This is, of course, untrue. The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: it is he who decides to which facts to give the floor, and in what

35      order or context. It was, I think, one of Pirandello's characters who said that a fact is like a sack — it won't stand up till you've put something in it. The only reason why we are interested to know that the battle was fought at Hastings in 1066 is that historians regard it as a major historical event. It is the historian who has

40      decided for his own reasons that Caesar's crossing of that petty stream, the Rubicon, is a fact of history, whereas the crossing of the Rubicon by millions of other people before or since interests nobody at all. The fact that you arrived in this building half an hour ago on foot, or on a bicycle, or in a car, is just as much of

45      a fact about the past as the fact that Caesar crossed the Rubicon. But it will probably be ignored by historians. Professor Talcott Parsons once called science «a selective system of cognitive orientations to reality». It might perhaps have been put more simply. But history is, among other things, that. The

50      historian is necessarily selective. The belief in a hard core of historical facts existing objectively and independently of the interpreta­tion of the historian is a preposterous fallacy, but one which is very hard to eradicate.

When I studied ancient history in this university many years ago, I had as a special subject «Greece in

55      the period of the Persian Wars». I collected fifteen or twenty volumes on my shelves and took it for granted that there, recorded in these volumes, I and all the facts relating to my subject. Let us as­sume — it was

60      very nearly true — that those volumes con­tained all the facts about it that were then known, or could be known. It never occurred to me to inquire by what accident or process of attrition that minute selection of facts, out of all the myriad facts that must once have been known to somebody, had survived to become the

65      facts of history. I suspect that even today one of the fascinations of ancient and medieval history is that it gives us the illusion of having all the facts at our disposal within a manageable compass: the nagging distinction between the facts of history and other facts about the past vanishes, because the few known

70      facts are all facts of history. As Bury, who had worked in both periods, said, «the records of ancient and medieval history are starred with lacunae». History has been called an enormous jig-saw with a lot of missing parts. But the main trouble does not consist in the lacunae. Out picture of Greece in the fifth

75      century В. С. is defective not primarily because so many of the bits have been accidentally lost, but because it is, by and large, the picture formed by a tiny group of people in the city of Athens. We know a lot about what fifth-century Greece looked like to an Athenian citizen; but hardly anything about what it

80      looked like to a Spartan, a Corinthian, or a Theban — not to mention a Persian, or a slave or other non-citizen resident in Athens. Our picture has been preselected and predetermined for us, not so much by accident as by people who were consciously or unconsciously imbued with a particular view and thought

85      the facts which supported that view worth preserving. In the same way, when I read in a modem history of the Middle Ages that the people of the Middle Ages were deeply concerned with religion, I won­der how we know this, and whether it is true. What we know as the facts of medieval history have almost all been

90      selected for us by generations of chroniclers who were professionally occupied in the theory and practice of religion, and who therefore thought it supremely important, and recorded everything relat­ing to it, and not much else. The picture of the Russian peas­ant as devoutly religious was destroyed by the revolution of

95      1917. The picture of medieval man as devoutly religious, whether true or not, is indestructible, because nearly all the known facts about him were preselected for us by people who believed it, and wanted others to believe it, and a mass of other facts, in which we might possibly have found evidence to the contrary,

100  has been lost beyond recall. The dead hand of vanished generations of historians, scribes, and chroniclers has determined beyond the possibility of appeal the pattern of the past.

In the first place, the facts of history never come to us "pure", since they do not and cannot exist in a

105 pure form: they are always refracted through the mind of the recorder. It follows that when we take up a work of history, our first concern should be not with the facts which it contains but with the historian who wrote it.

If, as Collingwood says, the historian must re-enact in thought what has gone on in the mind of his

110 dramatis personae, so the reader in his turn must re-enact what goes on in the mind of the historian. Study the historian before you begin to study the facts. This is, after all, not very abstruse. It is what is already done by the intelligent undergraduate who, when recommended to read a work by that greatscholar Jones of

115 St. Jude's goes round to a friend at St. Jude's to ask what sort of chap Jones is , and what bees he has in his bonnet. When you read a work of history, always listen out for the buzzing. If you can detect none, either

120 you are tone deaf or your historian is a dull dog. The facts are really not at all like fish on the fishmonger's slab. They are like fish swimming about in a vast and sometimes inaccessible ocean; and what the historian catches will depend, partly on chance, but mainly on what part of the ocean he chooses to fish in and what

125 tackle he chooses to use — these two factors being, of course, determined by the kind offish he wants to catch. By and large, the historian will get the kind of facts he wants. History means interpretation. Indeed, if, standing Sir George dark on his head, I were to call history «a hard core of interpretation surrounded by

130 a pulp of disputable facts», my statement would, no doubt, be one-sided and misleading, but no more so, I venture to think, than the original dictum.

The second point is the more familiar one of the historian's need of imaginative understanding for the

135 minds of the people with whom he is dealing, for the thought behind their acts: I say "imaginative understanding", not "sympathy" lest sympathy should be supposed to imply agreement. The nineteenth century was weak in medieval history, because it was too much repelled by the superstitious beliefs of the

140 Middle Ages, and by the barbarities which they inspired, to have any imaginative understanding of  medieval people. Or take Burckhardt's cen­sorious remark about the Thirty Years War: «It is scandalous for a creed, no matter whether it is Catholic or Protestant, to place its salvation above the integrity of the

145 nation». It was extremely difficult for a nineteenth-century liberal historian, brought up to believe that it is right and praiseworthy to kill in defence of one's country, but wicked and wrong-headed to kill in defence of one's religion, to enter into the state of mind of those who fought the Thirty Years War.

150            The third point is that we can view the past, and achieve our understanding of the past, only through the eyes of the present. The historian is of his own age, and is bound to it by the conditions of human existence. The very words which he uses — words like democracy, empire, war, revolution — have

155  current connotations from which he cannot divorce them. Ancient historians have taken to using words like polis and plebs in the original, just in order to show that they have not fallen into this trap. This does not help them. They, too, live in the present, and cannot cheat themselves into the past by using unfamiliar or

160  obsolete words, any more than they would become better Greek or Roman historians if they delivered their lectures in a chlamys or a toga. The name by which successive French historians have described the Parisian crowds which played so prominent a role in the French revolution — les sans-culottes, Ie peuple,

165  la canaille, les bras-nus — are all, for those who know the rules of the game, manifestos of a political affiliation and of a particular interpretation. Yet the historian is obliged to choose: the use of language forbids him to be neutral.

170    The predicament of the historian is a reflexion of the nature of man. Man, except perhaps in earliest infancy and in ex­treme old age, is not totally involved in his environment and unconditionally subject to it. On the other hand, he is never totally independent of it and its unconditional master. The relation of man to

175 his environment is the relation of the historian to his theme. The historian is neither the humble slave nor the tyrannical master of his facts. The relation between the historian and his facts is one of equality, of give-and-take. As any working historian knows, if he stops to reflect what he is doing as he thinks and

180 writes, the historian is engaged in a continuous process of moulding his facts to his interpretation and his interpretation to his facts. It is impossible to assign primacy to one over the other.

The historian starts with a provisional selection of facts, and a provisional interpretation in the light of

185 which that selection has been made — by others as well as by himself. As he works, both the interpretation and the selection and ordering of facts undergo subtle and perhaps partly unconscious changes, through the reciprocal action of one or the other. And this reciprocal action also involves reciprocity between present

190 and past, since the historian is part of the present and the facts belong to the past. The historian and the facts of history are necessary to one another. The historian without his facts is rootless and futile; the facts

195 without their historian are dead and meaningless. My first answer therefore to the question  «What is history?» is that it is a continuous process of interac­tion between the historian and his facts, an unending dialogue between the present and the past.

From: E.H. Cart, What Is History? (1964).

 

MORALITY AND FOREIGN POLICY

by George F. Kennan

George F. Kennan is Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

1 In a small volume of lectures published nearly thirty-five years ago, I had the temerity to suggest that the American statesmen of the turn of the twentieth century were unduly legalistic and moralistic in their

5     judgment of the actions of other governments. This seemed to be an approach that car­ried them away from the sterner requirements of political real­ism and caused their statements and actions, however impressive to the domestic political audience, to lose effectiveness in the international arena.

9               2 These observations were doubtless brought forward too cryptically and thus invited a wide variety of interpretations, not excluding the thesis that I had advocated an amoral, or even immoral foreign policy for

15      this country. There have since been demands, particularly from the younger generation, that I should make clearer my views on the relationship of moral considerations to American foreign policy. The challenge is a fair one and deserves a response.

II

3 Certain distinctions should be made before one wanders farther into this thicket of problems. First of

20      all, the conduct of diplomacy is the responsibility of governments. For purely prac­tical reasons, this is unavoidable and unalterable. This respon­sibility is not diminished by the fact that government, in formulating foreign policy, may choose to be influenced by pri­vate opinion. What we are talking about,

25      therefore, when we attempt to relate moral considerations to foreign policy, is the behavior of governments, not of individuals or entire peoples. Second, let us recognize that the functions, commitments and moral obligations of governments are not the same as those of the individual. Government is an agent,

30      not a principal. Its primary obligation is to the interests of the national society it represents, not to the moral impulses that individual elements of that society may experience. No more than the attorney vis-a-vis the client, nor the doctor vis-a-vis the patient, can gov­ernment attempt to insert itself into the consciences of

35      those whose interests it represents.

4 Let me explain. The interests of the national society for which government has to concern itself are basically those of its military security, the integrity of its political life and the well-being of its people.

40      These needs have no moral quality. They arise from the very existence of the national state in question and from the status of national sovereignty it enjoys. They are the unavoidable necessities of a national existence and therefore not subject to classification as either «good» or «bad». They may be questioned

45      from a detached philosophic point of view. But the government of the sovereign state can­ not make such judgments. When it accepts the responsibilities bf governing, implicit in that acceptance is the assumption that it is right that the state should be sovereign, that the integrity Of its political life should be assured, that

50      its people should enjoy the blessings of military security, material prosperity and a reasonable opportunity for, as the Declaration of Indepen­dence put it, the pursuit of happiness. For these assumptions the government needs no moral justification, nor need it ac­cept any moral reproach for acting on the basis of them.

55                5 This assertion assumes, however, that the concept of na­tional security taken as the basis for governmental concern is one reasonably, not extravagantly, conceived. In an age of nuclear striking

60      power,national security can never be more than relative; and to the extent that it can be assured at all, it must find its sanction in the intentions of rival powers as well as in their capabilities. A concept of national security that ig­nores this reality and, above all, one that fails to concede the same legitimacy to the security

65      needs of others that it claims for its own, lays itself open to the same moral reproach from which, in normal circumstances, it would be immune.

6      Whoever looks thoughtfully at the present situation of the United States in particular will have to agree that to assure these blessings to the American people is a task of such dimen­sions that the

70    government attempting to meet it successfully will have very little, if any, energy and attention left to devote to other undertakings, including those suggested by the moral impulses of these or those of its citizens.

7      Finally, let us note that there are no internationally ac­cepted standards of morality to which the U.S.

75      government could appeal if it wished to act in the name of moral prin­ciples. It is true that there are certain words and phrases suffi­ciently highsounding the world over so that most governments, when asked to declare themselves for or against, will cheerfully subscribe to them, considering that such is their vaguenes

80      that the mere act of subscribing to them carries with it no danger of having one's freedom of action significantly impaired. To this category of pronouncements belong such documents as the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the Atlantic Charter, the Yalta Declara­tion on Liberated Europe, and the prologues of innumerable

85      other international agreements.

8      Ever since Secretary of State John Hay staged a political coup in 1899 by summoning the supposedly wicked European powers to sign up to the lofty principles of his Open Door notes (principles which neither

90      they nor we had any awkward intention of observing), American statesmen have had a fond­ness for hurting just such semantic challenges at their foreign counterparts, thereby placing themselves in a graceful posture before domestic American opinion and reaping whatever po­litical fruits are to be derived from the

95      somewhat grudging and embarrassed responses these challenges evoke.

9      To say these things, I know, is to invite the question: how about the Helsinki accords of 1975? These, of course, were numerous and varied. There is no disposition here to question the value of many of them as

100  refinements of the norms of international intercourse. But there were some, particularly those related to human rights, which it is hard to relegate to any category other than that of the high-minded but innocuous professions just referred to. These accords were declaratory in nature, not contractual. The very general

105  terms in which they were drawn up, involving the use of words and phrases that had different meanings for different people, deprived them of the character of specific obligations to which signatory govern­ments could usefully be held. The Western statesmen who pressed for Soviet adherence to these pronouncements

110  must have been aware that some of them could not be implemented on the Soviet side, within the meanings we would normally attach to their workings, without fundamental changes in the Soviet system of power

115  changes we had no reason to expect would, or could, be introduced by the men then in power.  Whether it is morally commendable to induce others to sign up to declarations, however high-minded in resonance, which one knows will not and cannot be implemented, is a reason­able question. The Western negotiators, in any case, had no reason to plead naivete as their excuse for doing so.

120            10 When we talk about the application of moral standards to foreign policy, therefore, we are not talking about compli­ance with some clear and generally accepted international code of behavior. If the policies

125  and actions of the U.S. government are to be made to conform to moral standards, these standards are going to have to be America's own, founded on traditional American principles of justice and propriety. When others fail to conform to those principles, and when their failure to con­form has an adverse effect on

130  American interests, as distinct from political tastes, we have every right to complain and, if necessary, to take retaliatory action. What we cannot do is to assume that our moral standards are theirs as well, and to appeal to those standards as the source of our grievances.

From: Foreign Affairs, 1986.

 

MORALITY AND FOREIGN POLICY: APPENDIX

Excerpts from : THE ATLANTIC CHARTER

Statement issued by President Roosevelt and Prime Minis­ter Churchill, after their meeting «at sea» on August 14,1941

The President of the United States and the Prime Minister Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, being met together , deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world.

….

 

Fourth: They will endeavor , with due respect for their ex­isting obligations, to further the enjoyment by all states , great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity;

….

 

Sixth: After the destruction of the Nazi tyranny, they hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom and want;

Eighth: They believe that all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons, must come to the abandonment of the use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea or air armaments continue to be em­ployed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the establish­ment of a wider and permanent system of general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They will likewise aid and encourage all other practicable measures which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of arma­ments.

 

HUMAN MIGRATION:

A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

WILLIAM H. McNEILL

1)   Defending hearth and home against strangers, on the one hand, and roving to far places in search of food and ex­citement, on the other, have always been opposing poles of human experience. They tend to

5          manifest themselves most strongly at different stages of the life cycle: roving being an affair of youth, home-keeping of adulthood as well as of in­fancy and old age. The roving pattern of behavior has obvious biological advantages: apart from expanding the range of ge­netic mingling and variation, rovers

10      occasionally discovered new foods and in rare instances even opened up new ecologi­cal niches for human occupancy. Their restless movements continually probed for new possibilities and tested old barriers, usually finding nothing of importance to other human beings, but every so often opening the way for

15     critically important technological, geographical, and/or social breakthroughs.

2)   Roving behavior, therefore, had an important role in human (and prehuman) evolution. Humankind could not have become the earth-girdling, dominant species we are without roving and without the

20      migrations that followed successful discovery of new possibilities made manifest by such roving. Hu­man occupation of the Americas and of previously islanded lands of Oceania is only the most recent — and geographically most extensive — example of processes that are as old as hu­mankind.

25                3) My thesis is that from Sume'rian times until the latter decades of the nineteenth century — almost throughout civi­lized history in other words — our currents of migration can be distinguished and were, indeed, necessary for the maintenance of Eurasian civilized society. These four currents of migration

30    divide into movements affecting the unskilledprimarily peas­ants or ex-peasants — and movements of elites.

4)First, consider mass migration patterns. My hypothesis rests on the idea that differential patterns of

35      mortality were created by the conditions of city life. This in turn permanently drew migrants from their places of birth — into cities, on the one hand, and off towards the frontiers of settlement, on the other. How epidemiology could create and sustain such a double pattern of die-off and compensatory migration

40      requires a little explanation. When comparatively large numbers of human beings began to live in cities, many different infections became more common because proximity multiplied opportunities for parasitic organisms to pass from one human host to another. Not only this: when human numbers attained a critical

45      thresh­old (sometimes in the hundreds of thousands), entirely new forms of infection that passed directly from human to human with no intermediate host or dormant form of the infectious organism became viable. These infections constitute the array of familiar childhood diseases of the recent past: smallpox,

50      measles, mumps, and the like. Such diseases could survive only within civilized societies, since only there were human numbers and frequency of contact sufficient to allow the infec­tious organism to find an unceasing succession of new hosts.

5)This class of infections provokes antibody formation in infected humans so that one exposure to the

55      disease will create immunity for many years, usually for a lifetime. In a disease-experienced population, therefore, only children are suitable hosts for these infections. But among inexperienced popula­tions this is not the case. In such societies adults are just as vulnerable as children to infection and death. Thus the

60  impact of these civilized disease's upon disease-experienced popula­tions is entirely different from their impact upon virgin popu­lations: a fact of enormous import for human history.

6) A result of the intensification of infection that urban conditions of life induced was that until the

65      latter part of the nineteenth century cities were population sumps. Eighteenth-century London, for instance, required an in-migration of an average of 6,000 persons per annum simply to maintain itself — a sum of 600,000 for the entire century, which was more than the entire population of the city in 1700. No

70      comparably reliable figures exist for earlier ages; but I believe this necessity for recruiting urban population from the countryside — what we can perhaps call the Dick Whittington syndrome — is about as old as cities themselves.

7)The reasons for saying this are twofold. Early (ca. 2000 B.C.) Mesopotamian texts such as the Epic of Gilgamesh refer casually to lethal epidemic infection as an evidence of divine power. This shows that conspicuous and demographically sig­nificant epidemic infections had become routine aspects of

80      urbanism by 2000 B.C., i.e., within the Hrst millennium of city living. Secondly, the language of administration and record-keeping in the cities of southern Mesopotamia shifted during the third millennium from Sumerian to Akkadian. I believe that this shift registered the result of in-migration to the

85      (ini­tially) Sumerian-speaking cities from the Akkadian-speaking  countryside — a pattern of migration that at some point must have assumed such velocity as to make it unnecessary for the in-migrants to learn the language of the established managers of the city. A modem parallel from European history is the way in

90      which Prague and Budapest ceased to be German-speaking cities when the pace of in-migration from the Czech — and Magyar-speaking countryside assumed an increased veloc­ity in the course of the nineteenth century, partly in response to industrial expansion, and partly as an aftermath of cholera (and other

95      epidemic) die-off of German-speaking urban dwellers. It seems possible, therefore, that the linguistic shift in an­cient Mesopotamia (which had no apparent political or mili­tary base) attests the existence in remote antiquity of the same rural to urban migration current that played such a prominent role in eighteenth

100  century London and nineteenth-century  Prague and Budapest.

8) Armies constituted another significant population sump for civilized societies. They assumed demographically signi­ficant roles about a thousand years after cities first came into existence. It is, indeed,

105  useful to think of armies as mobile cities, exercising power over the countryside from a movable focus in much the same way that cities were accustomed to exercise power over their rural hinterlands from a fixed loca­tion. And like cities, the human density of armies (and of people fleeing before their ravages) induced

110  intensified infections that were far more lethal than weapons. In modem times, when figures become more or less accurate, soldiers' deaths from disease far outranked deaths in action until after the Boer War,

      1901-3.

115       9) Rural emigrants had, accordingly, two alternative paths of migration available to them: either moving into the city to make their fortunes as chance and aptitude and places opened by die-off of older urban populations might permit, or serving in an army-voluntarily or by conscription — and pursuing a

120  career under arms, where life expectancy was even shorter than in town and the pattern whereby fresh recruits moved into slots vacated by veterans' deaths was a good deal more obvious and immediate —speedier and more massive in other words — than was commonly the case in cities.

125     10) A second traditional current of mass migration from the peasant countryside ran in an opposite direction: towards the frontier of settlement. This may perhaps be termed the Daniel Boone syndrome. Lands towards the periphery of civilized styles of living were ordinarily made available for settlement by

130  in­tensified die-off of partially isolated populations resulting from contacts with disease-experienced city folk. This phenomenon was masively apparent in the Americas, where contacts with white men regularly decimated Indian populations. Similar processes prevailed in the deeper past, at the fringes of other

135  civilized communities, from the time that the characteristic diseases of civilization established themselves in cities, and thereby conferred upon disease-experienced civilized commu­nities an epidemiological weapon wherewith to mow down iso­lated, disease-inexperienced communities.

140     11) Innumerable instances of how an unfamiliar infection 140 can play havoc in isolated communities are known from recent times. When measles was first introduced into Fiji, for in­stance, twenty-five percent of the population died of the infec­tion within a few weeks; the English doctor who observed these

145 appalling effects published what became a classical account of this sort of virgin-soil epidemic in 1877. To give a more recent illustration: when the Alcan highway was opened in 1942, a previously isolated Alaskan community experienced nine dif­ferent, serious infections within the first nine months that trucks began to

150 move through their community. Had the sick not been spirited away to modem hospitals as soon as a new infec­tion appeared among them, it is impossible to believe that this tiny community of some individuals could have survived the catastrophic exposure to diseases of civilization the Alcan high­way meant for them.

155            12) Obviously, such epidemics opened the way for rela­tively easy expansion of civilized settlement, if climate and soils and other natural conditions made it possible for familiar ways of exploiting the environment to be applied in the newly emptied landscapes. Indeed civilized expansion of this kind

160  resembles the growth patterns of bread mold on an agar jelly, whereby the mold excretes a substance — penicillin — lethal to rival forms of life. Civilized communities do the same merely by breathing in the presence of disease-inexperienced human adults.

165          13) Thus while endemic disease in urban centers main­tained a flow of migrants from countryside into town, epi­demic disease operating towards the periphery of the civilized region sporadically depopulated

170  frontier zones, which thus be­came available for pioneer settlement by other migrants from the same rural hinterland. An inward flow of relatively low skilled ex-peasants towards cities (and armies) thus matched an outward slow towards unsettled frontiers on the part of the same population. (See Figure 1.)

175    14) This, I think, was the fundamental pattern of human migration in China, India, the Middle East, and Europe; and its operation had much to do with the fact that in these regions a single style of civilized life (or closely related variants upon a single style, like the differences between Latin and Orthodox

180 Christendom in medieval times, or between German and French civilization in the nineteenth century) tended to assert itself and maintain recognizable identity across relatively very large times and spaces. In parts of the earth where these two basic patterns of migration did not assert their homogenizing force, high

185 urban cultures exerted a less long-lived and less territorially extensive effect. Their rise and fall could be and appar­ently was more rapid and may have affected rural life less inti­mately than was the case in the temperate zones of the Old World.

15) Two more migration patterns nevertheless also deserve  attention though they affected smaller numbers of persons, being an affair of elites and ruling classes rather than of the masses. As before, one such current moved inward toward the centers of urban life and civilization, and a second moved out­ward

195 toward (and beyond) civilizational frontiers. I wish to consider the latter pattern first, since I believe it manifested itself before the contrary migration of elites inward toward the center of civilization set in.

16) From the earliest days of the river-valley civilizations of the Near East it is clear that certain

200 important raw materials had to be brought into the emerging cities and court centers from afar.  Mesopotamia and Egypt both lacked timber and metals. Mesopotamia also lacked stone.

Figure 1. Standard mass migration pattern for traditional civilization

Yet these commodities played a critical role in early civi­lized technology. Trade expeditions, often

205 undistinguishable from raids, were necessary to assure a supply of these and other valued raw materials.

17) This economic motive for penetrating distant regions was supplemented from quite early times by

210 missionary im­pulses, perhaps sustained by the fact that a missionary preaching some doctrine valued for religious reasons might also ex­pect to secure for himself an honored and relatively comfort­able status among the barbarian populations who received him and accepted his message. Thus the spread of the so

215 called megalithic tomb and other structures around the coasts of western Europe as far as the Baltic during the third millennium B.C. seems to have been accomplished by missionaries of a faith that taught life after death and set great store by accurate astronomical observations.

220    18) Often, too, trade and conversion went hand-in-hand. Merchants and raiders carried idea as well as goods; and if those ideas somehow illumined reality as experienced by dis­tant and alien peoples among whom they penetrated, ideational borrowing and adaptation could and did occur in quite the same way that

225 technological traits and skills might also diffuse outward from a civilized center along routes of trade — always within limits set by the receptivity of the distant community to the imports from the civilized center.

19) Among the skills exported from civilized communities were those of organized violence. As long as

230 human communities did not produce more than was needed to keep alive, raiding and robbery were relatively unrewarding. Moral inhibitions against seizing what one had not himself labored to make available for human consumption must, I think, have been very strong in early agricultural communities;

235 and in the absence of food surpluses, a community that tried to live by robbery and pillage would speed­ily kill off its victims and thus find itself unable to live any longer by rapine. Only when populations came into existence that ha­bitually produced more than they themselves consumed did a predatory pattern of life

240 become practicable. And it was only when urban elites had come into being and learned how to feed themselves by extracting foodstuffs from agriculturalists that popu­lations which habitually produced more food than they needed for their own use came into existence.

245    20) Eventually, however, dwellers-round-about discovered that they could rival city elites in preying upon the rural peas­antry, seizing food and other commodities on a hit-and-run basis. With luck, a raiding party could expect to get in ahead of civilized tax and rent collectors or armies living off the coun­tryside.

250 As militarization of the barbarian world proceeded, such raiders became rivals and potential heirs to civilized rul­ing classes. In Eurasia, the main reservoir of barbarian prowess established itself on the grasslands of the steppe, with a sec­ondary center in the drier zone that shades off into desert south of the steppe.

255            Recorded political history largely turns upon how one wave of barbarian invaders after another coming off the steppe or in from the deserts of the Middle East and Central Asia con­quered civilized lands and

260  established themselves as rulers. Successful conquerors, of course, set out as best they could to prevent others from following directly in their rear, overthrow­ing their power. Diplomatic missions, tribute payments, puni­tive military expeditions, elaborate border defenseworks to shel­ter standing armies or,

265  alternatively, local self-defense of civi­lized landscapes by peasant militias or by professionalized warrior classes living in the countryside: all these and more were tried. And all, sooner or later, failed to check fresh invasion and conquest from the barbarian fringes. This Genghis Khan syndrome therefore matched

270  and opposed the Marco Polo/Dr. Livingstone trade-missionary syndrome, each affecting relalively small elites, and pulling them in opposite directions. (See Figure 2.)

21) The historical importance of these patterns of elite mi­gration seem very considerable. Efforts at

275 defense and no less persistent efforts at raid and conquest provided a fertile stimulus to administrative and technical innovation, from the time the war chariot burst upon civilized communities with initially irresistible force until the present. In addition, the far-ranging movements of warrior, trading, and

280 missionary elites spread familiarity with a considerable variety of high skills across otherwise unbridgeable distances.

Figure 2. Elite migration pattern for traditional civilization

Skills of China could and did seep westward along paths of communication, just as Roman or Middle Eastern and Indian skills and ideas could move in the opposite direction along the same communications paths.

285            22) Whenever established institutions and ideas of a par­ticular civilization failed to function satisfactorily, the possibil­ity of taking alien notions and skills seriously arose. Much of the cultural history

290  of civilized societies in the Eurasian world turned upon such sporadic receptivity on the part of one civilization for things imported (and in the process normally also distorted) from an alien, distant civilized center. From this point of view, the massive interaction between western civili­zation and the various other

295high cultures of the earth which has been such a conspicuous feature of the last two to three centuries is no more than the most recent (though perhaps the most dramatic and drastic) such process.

23) Inter-civilizational exchange and stimulus provided a major-perhaps the major — stimulus to

300 change within civilized communities ever since the plurality of civilized cultures became knowable to suitably located and strategically situated individuals. The ancient Greeks' encounter with the Orient, so tellingly recorded in Herodotus' pages, and the initial Chinese encounter with the Middle East, more briefly

305 recorded in the pages of the Ssu-ma Ch'ien, the founder of Chinese historiography, have the advantage of being accessible to us through surviving texts. Other similar encounters ran all the way back to the time when predynastic Egyptians met ideas and skills emanating from Sumer and saw that they were good, some

310 time before 3000 B.C. Such stimuli drastically altered patterns of cultural growth and often accelerated developments or turned them into new paths. Or so I argued in The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community, which, with its empha­sis upon cultural diffusion, may be read as a paean to the world historical significance of elite migration. (See Figure 3).

Figure 3. Elite migration linkages by ca. 1 A.D.

315            24) Two observations about these migration patterns seem worth making. First, mass migration was not always a matter of a more or less free individual or group response to their perceptions of the world and

320  its opportunities. Obviously, the existence of civilization and cities, with the patterns of human migration these communities created, put extraordinary strain upon the rural food-producing peasantry. Their efforts sus­tained the city folk in a most direct fashion by raising the food the citizens consumed. They also

325  supported cities and rulers by exporting a portion of their offspring after having borne all the costs of raising them from infancy to adolescence. It follows that high rural birth rates, as well as the regular production of a lot more food than the village population of working age itself required, were preconditions for the maintenance of civi­lized patterns of life.

330        25) If one reflects upon the hardships and difficulties such requirements placed upon the peasantry, it is not surprising that population shortages in the countryside could and some­times did threaten the survival

335  of city life and civilization. In such cases, legal enactment often sought to assure fulfillment of vital functions by assigning individuals to specific jobs and roles in society. A second possibility was to recruit labor by organizing slave raids aimed at bringing additional manpower to bear on tasks for which an

340 adequate supply of local person­nel was not available. Slave soldiers and household servants were sometimes more prominent in the past than slave cultiva­tors; but since slaves seldom reproduced themselves, all three kinds of slavery depended on the availability of a supply of enslaveable people somewhere at a distance.

345  26) Wherever such pools of enslaveable population were discovered and exploited — whether in Africa or on the Turk­ish steppes or in Russian villages — they constituted a sort of auxiliary reservoir of manpower for civilized societies, supple­menting the peasant manpower resources available closer at hand which had

350 proved insufficient to man all the posts and perform all the functions the civilized ruling classes wanted or needed to have performed.

27) Secondly, it made a good deal of difference whether the circulatory patterns of migration I have

355 described were entered upon by isolated individuals and small family groups that left their native place and moved to the city, into an army, or to the frontier as a result of individual decision, or whether such channels of migration were instead entered upon by larger so­cial groups—whole tribes or village — that

360 entered into the circulatory system of civilized society as organized communities, so that they could maintain, e.g., a linguistic identity of their own in novel situations, and perpetuate distinctive cul­tural characteristics even after they had entered into the very heart and core of civilized society. The Jews who

365 wept by the waters of Babylon in the time of Nebuchadnezzar and the Visigoths and Vandals who sacked Rome in the fifth century A.D. sufficiently illustrate the difference that migration in or­ganized groupings can make to the historic role such migrants may play as against anything possible for isolated individuals and small family groupings.

370            28) Finally, I should point out that the fourfold pattern of civilized migration in Eurasia that I have sketched did not exclude other remarkable migratory movements during the his­toric age. Among peoples

375  but little affected by acquaintance with the skills of civilization, some quite extraordinary migratory dispersals are known to have occurred. The Indonesian migration from Borneo to Madagascar, the Polynesian migra­tion through the islands of the central Pacific, the Eskimo circumpolar migration and the

380  Bantu migration within Africa each allowed human communities to penetrate and exploit in new ways hitherto uninhabited or very thinly inhabited land­scapes. As such, they partook of the process described in my first pages-pushing human occupancy ever closer to absolute geographic limits.

385    29) From about 1700 the patterns of civilized migration outlined above began to encounter fundamentally new circum­stances. It can be argued, indeed, that the world of our own time is only beginning to come to grips with the changed con­ditions of migration that began to manifest themselves in the eighteenth century,

390 and became massive human realities in the course of the nineteenth.

 

INTEGRATING RISK ANALYSIS INTO PUBLIC POLICYMAKING

By John F. Ahearne

JOHN F. AHEARNE is the executive director of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Reseach Society, and adjunct scholar at Resources for the Future in Washington, D.C. This article is based on a talk given at the Electric Power Reseach Institute — Stanford Symposium in honour of Dr. Chauncy Starr’s 80th birthday.

1 Public policies involve issues in which governmental or private actions affect a significant segment of the general pub­lic. Because these actions often engender a certain amount of risk for that segment, the

150      questions arise: Does, can, and should risk analysis affect public policy? The answer to all of these questions is «yes». Risk analysis should and does affect public policy. Unfortunately, often the risk analyses that don’t, should; and those that should, don’t.

150      2 Some of the public policy issues for which risk analysis could, should, or may be important include how to dispose of low-level radioactive waste, where to store high-level radioac­tive waste, and what controls should be placed on energy pro­duction. Other such topics are the disposal of hazardous wastes;

15     constraints on the use of pesticides; the impacts of smokingboth active and passive; the export of tobacco; the use of ani­mals in medical research; and the allocation of public resources to address these and other problems. The use of risk analyses in setting public policy concerning these topics is complicated, however,

20    by the level of understanding among government officials and the public, the influence of the media, and the impacts on resource allocation. These issues are critical as so­ciety wrestles with rapid scientific and technological change amidst growing concerns about environmental and health im­pacts. New approaches,

25    developed by involving a wide range of people, are needed to help science and society.

 

Public Understanding and Opinion

150      First, for risk analysis to have a positive impact on public policy, the public and officials must have an understanding of technical matters. Jon Miller, who does surveys for the Na­tional Science Board, has spent

150   more than 10 years assessing what he has described as the scientific literacy of the U.S. public. His definition of scientific literacy has three elements: a basic vocabulary of scientific terms and concepts sufficient to be able to read science news, newspapers, and magazines and to understand «McNeil Lehrer

35      Newshour» and «Nightline»; an understanding of the process of science, or the difference between knowing something scientifically and other ways of knowing; and an awareness of the impact of science and tech­nology on individuals and on society. The data Miller has col­lected support the view, and the

40      National Science Board has concluded, that, according to this description of scientific lit­eracy, much of the U.S. public is lacking the necessary under­standing. For example, the 1990 survey asked U.S. adults: Does the Earth go around the sun, or does the sun go around the Earth? Twenty percent said the sun goes around

45      the Earth. Of those who concluded that the Earth goes around the sun, 20 percent said it goes around the sun once a day. Miller also asked whether the earliest humans lived at the same time as dinosaurs. In the

50      United States, 36 percent of those polled said «yes»-a much larger percentage than in Britain or West Germany. Eighteen percent said they did not know. Miller as­cribes the high percentage of affirmative answers to the «Flintstone effect».

150   However, there have been positive signs. For several years, Miller has been asking: Would you say

150 that astrology is very scientific, sort of scientific, or not at all scientific? The per­centage of people saying that astrology is not at all scientific has gradually risen from 50 percent in 1979 to 60 percent in 1988. This percentage is at least double that in France and almost double that in West Germany.

60        5 Another indication of the level of public understanding is seen in polls on nuclear power issues. A question in the nuclear industry has been how to describe the new nuclear power plants to the public. In particular, the nuclear industry needs to de­scribe the plants so that the public understands that one

65    characteristic of these new designs is a reduction in the probability of a severe accident. Announcing that the plants have a core melt frequency of 10-6 is probably not going to go a long way toward convincing the public. Therefore, the industry has been searching for more descriptive language. In a survey, people were

70      asked to pick out the terms that «mean something good to you». Many of the phrases that the nuclear industry sug­gested did not captivate the public. For example, only 9 per­cent of the public thought

75      transparently safe meant something good; 10 percent thought passively safe was good; 26 percent thought inherently safe and walkaway safe were good. Walk­away safe means that hours, even days, would pass before dam­age leading to the release of radiation could occur after a seri­ous accident, which allows

80      operators time to think through their options carefully before taking action. Much of the public, however, thougt that walkaway safe meant that one could walk away from the accident instead of running away. Safer received almost one-half of the votes. Although there is little expectation that many new plants will

85      be described as being safer than the current plants, the results of the survey do provide some confidence in the public’s judgment because they indicate that the public is focused on substance — improving safety —not on style — what terminology is used.

6      Nevertheless, inconsistencies continue in the develop­ment of public understanding of risks, and the

90      issue must be faced by anyone working on risk analysis and public policy. It is not enough merely to do the technical analysis of an acci­dent or hazard sequence, which a technical person might be­lieve is most important. Public policy and risk analysis demand more. However, it is very difficult to determine exactly

95      what is driving public opinion. For example, recent polls in North Carolina asked whether the public is too concerned with the environment. Two-thirds of the people either mostly or com­pletely disagreed. When

100  asked which they would choose for their state — more jobs or stricter environmental laws — how-100 ever, 75 percent of the people either mostly or completely agreed with choosing jobs over stricter environmental laws. At the same time, North Carolina is the compact state that was chosen to develop a low-level radioactive waste site to replace the one in Barnwell, South Carolina. Not surprisingly, North

105  Carolina has been unable to find a site. A survey asked the public whether they supported the following statement: «What­ever the cost, North Carolina needs to get out of the agree­ment with the neighboring

110  states regarding placing the radio­active waste site in our state.» More than half the people agreed that North Carolina ought to get out of the agreement. They want the jobs, but they also want out of the agreement.

7      This type of inconsistency is not restricted to radioactive waste disposal sites. In an effort to locate a

115 hazardous waste incinerator in North Carolina, an incinerator company convinced Woodland’s town officials to accept the incinerator. Shortly thereafter, a town election was held:

Aroused opponents of a proposed hazardous waste incin­erator voted in a new slate of town officials

150    Tuesday, replacing the Mayor and four Council memebers who invited ThermalKEM to their town.

The defeated mayor had been in office for 27 years. Voter turnout was 89 percent. The interest was so high that, rather than going home after voting, many voters stayed at the votecounting center. The crowd

125 greeted the results by chanting, «Not here, not there, not anywhere!»

8      Although addressing the U.S. public is difficult, this nation’s public may not be the most difficult. In fall 1991, at a work­shop sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Yves Kaluzney, head of the

130  nuclear division of the General Directorate for Energy and Raw Materials in the government of France, discussed the problems France has had in trying to establish a site for high-level radioactive waste. The process had to be halted and a parliamentary commission established because of local objections. After a

135  U.S. participant in the DOE conference suggested that the two sides ought to enter into dialogue, Kaluzney said, «When you have people putting fire to your documents, throwing stones through your win­dows, breaking your computers, that is opposition—that is not dialogue».

150      9 Risk analysis and public policy often are in conflict on nuclear power issues. Physicist Richard Wilson, who has been involved in risk analysis across a broad spectrum of fields, once described how he got into the nuclear field:

150         It didn’t take long for me to realize that the problems, and even the issues of nuclear energy [have] very little to do with nuclear physics. The problems are of engineering and percep­tion. While I agree with much that they say, I reject the idea that the public perception of risk is more important than the actual magnitude

150 of the risk. The perceptions can change rapidly — the risk itself stays the same. Of course, we do not know the risk itself. All we know is the perception of that risk by an expert. But some people reject experts.

10 Another active proponent in the nuclear field also has commented on the difficulty of dealing with

155  perceptions. Bernard Cohen, professor of nuclear physics and radiation health at the University of Pittsburgh, wrote:

«The American public must be educated on these matters [health, safety, and economics of nuclear

160 power]. He noted the difficulty he has had in trying to get across the concept of radiation damage to humans and of levels of acceptable expo­sure.

The Role of the Media

11 Are the media the problem? Have the risk analyses been done well, but have the media described

165  them poorly? Is it the media who are really at fault in the difficulty that risk analysis have in getting analyses accepted? Philip Abelson, in an edito­rial in «Science», seemed to blame the media when he wrote: «When mentioned by the media, the polychlorinated biphe-nyls (PCBs) are described as cancercausing

170  chemicals. A more precise statement would be that huge daily lifelong doses of some of the PCBs are cancer'causing in rats».

12 Several years ago, the National Research Council Committe on Risk Perception and Communication

175  addressed the question of whether the media are really the heart of the problem: «It is mistaken to view journalists and the media always as significant, independent causes of problems in risk communication». The committee did note that «most news organizations would not tolerate sports or business reporting by reporters who do not understand the subject.

180      ... The same is not always true of the reporting of the tech­nical and social dimensions of risk messages.» However, the committee advised:

What is needed are ways to improve risk communication by helping scientists and decision-makers

185 understand how and why journalists do their work and by helping journalists under­stand how scientists and decision-makers think and interact.

THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT

13 Where, then, can solutions be found to effectively apply risk analysis to public policy? The public is

190  struggling with  some inconsistencies but perhaps becoming more scientifically literate, and the media cannot be counted on, although they should not be blamed. Perhaps one should look to the U.S. Congress. Unfortunately, Congress is probably not the right place to look for the solutions. In March 1992, Senator

195  Warren Rudman (R-N.H.) spoke in the Senate. He was not talk­ing about the kind of risk analysis addressed here, but what he said is germane:

We are unable, institutionally, to do what has to be done. We are literally not watching the fiddler fiddle

200 while Rome burns, we are watching the entire orchestra.

This is similar to a recent description of the DOE: «They are economic with the truth».

COST OF REGULATION

205     14 Difficulties in estimating and explaining risks can lead to misallocation of resources. Perhaps the government and the public are not 'accurately identifying the most serious risks. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), although it appropriately gets many criticisms, has tried to force agencies

210  to estimate how much their regulations cost per life saved or health effect prevented. In the fiscal-year 1992 budget, 0MB estimated the costs of some EPA regulations. In 1990 dollars per premature death prevented, the estimates from 1980 to the present range from $100,000 for regulations on unvented space

215  heaters, automobile seat belts, and underground construction standards to $6 trillion for regulations on wood-preserving chemicals. Although the $6 trillion could be a miscalculation or an exaggeration, the 16 other regulations ranged from $13 million to $650 million and 3 were greater than $4 billion. One might

220  say OMB is'politically driven to provide one-sided data. Therefore, consider estimates by the Center for Risk Analysis of the Harvard School of Public Health. The center's 1991 annual report included estimates in 1990 dollars of the expenditures per year of life saved. The report noted that for childhood measles

225  vaccinations and for the phasing out of unleaded gasoline, the cost was negative — society «made money» by these actions. Safety rules at underground construction sites were estimated to cost $52,000 per year of life saved; front seat airbags in new cars, about $11,000; and dioxin effluent controls at paper mills, almost $6 million».

230    16 There are regulations that seem to be skewed. Econo­mists at Resources for the Future (RFF) have addressed the cost-effectiveness of regulations, particularly the costs and ben­efits of the changes to the Clean Air Act.

MORE RESEARCH NEEDED

235            17 Although this issue of risk communication with the pub­lic has been studied for decades, many important questions need serious study. The National Research Council Commit­tee on Risk Perception

240  and Communication spent two years examining what is known about how to communicate effectively with the public. The committee concluded that several areas needed further research:

* — Comparability — When are risks similar enough to be compared? In trying to understand risk,

245 many people try to do a risk comparison. There needs to be research on what key factors enable a risk to be compared and on the dimension that risks should not be compared across. Comparisons are often used to justify actions by inappropriately comparing voluntary risks with imposed risks.

250      * — The comprehension of magnitudes — How do different ways of presenting the magnitudes affect people's understand­ing of, or feel for, the size of the risks? This is an issue analysts

  and the public struggle with, particularly as they try to address probabilities that are quite small, such as one in a million.

255   * — Mental models — How do people think about the risk decisions that confront them? The information available on a risk is useful only if people can incorporate it into their think­ing about the risk and its management.

* — Risk literacy — How can people learn the language and concepts needed to understand risk

260  statements? Is there important preparation that could significantly improve under­standing?

These are researchable questions, and work should be done on them.

265       18 Finally, if public understanding is important, the technical people who understand these issues must work harder to communicate: they must work harder to provide clear risk analy­ses to the decision makers in agencies, in industry, and in Congress. Technical people do have credibility. They also have a

270  responsibility. This responsibility can be summarized in the words of Thomas Jefferson:

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the 280 society, but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a whole­some discretion, the remedy is

275 not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.

From: Environment, 1994, Volume 35, Number 2.

 

EDUCATION AND POLITICAL TOLERANCE

 

THE 1984 GENERAL SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

Atheist speak: There are always some people whose ideas are considered bad or dangerous by other people. For instance, somebody who is against all churches and religion. If such a person wanted to make a speech in your city/ town/commu­nity against churches and religion, should he be allowed to speak, or not?

Atheist teach. Should such a person be allowed to teach in a college or universiry, or not?

Atheist book. If some people in you community suggested that a book he wrote against churches and religion should be taken out of your public library, would you favor removing this book, or not?

Communist speak. Now, I should like to ask you some questions about a man who admits he is a communist. Sup­pose this admitted communist wanted to make a speech in your community. Should he be allowed to speak, or not?

Communist teach. Suppose he is teaching in a college. Should he be fired, or not?

Communist book. Suppose he wrote a book which is in your public library. Somebody in your community suggests that the book should he removed from the library. Would you favor removing it or not?

Racist speak. Or , consider a person who belives that blacks are genetically inferior.If such a person wanted to make a speech in your community claiming that blacks are inferior, should he be allowed to speak, or not?

Racist teach. Should such a person be allowed to teach in college or university or not?

Racist book. If some people in your community suggested that a book he wrote which said blacks are inferior should be taken out of your public library, would you favor removing the book, or not?

Militarist speak. Consider a person who advocates doing away with elections and letting the military run the country. If such a person wanted to make a speech in your community, should he be allowed to speak, or not?

Militarist teach. Should such a person be allowed to teach in a college or university, or not?

Militarist book. Suppose he wrote a book advocating doing away with elections and letting the military run the country. Somebody in your community suggests that the book should he removed from the library. Would you favor removing it or not?

Homosexual speak. And what about a man who admits that he is a homosexual? Suppose this admitted homosexual wanted to make a speech in your community. Should he be allowed to speak or not?

Homosexual teach. Should such a person be allowed to teach in a college or university or not?

Homosexual book. If some people in your community sug­gested that a book he wrote in favor of homosexuality should be taken out of your public library, would you favor removing this book, or not?

 

EDUCATION AND POLITICAL TOLERANCE

TESTING THE EFFECTS OF COGNITIVE SOPHISTICATION AND TARGET GROUP AFFECT

LAWRENCE BOBO

and

FREDERICK C.LICARI

Abstract this paper examines the effects of education and cognitive sophistication on willingness to extend civil liberties to nonconformist groups. We conducted secondary analysis of the 1984 General Society Survey data. The results show that there is a strong tolerance dimension that cuts across groups and types of actions. We found strong positive effects of edu­cation on a multiple target group tolerance scale that included both left-wing and right-wing groups. A substantial fraction of the education effect on tolerance is mediated by cognitive so­phistication. The effects of education on tolerance are strong even when a person has negative feelings toward the target group. This paper helps identify why and when (e.g., cognitive sophistication and dislike of a target group) education enhances political tolerance. We discuss the implications of the research for debates on the education-tolerance relationship.

LAWRENCE BOBO is Associate Professor of Sociol­ogy at the University of Wisconsin.

FREDERICK C. LICARI is a Ph.D. candidate in the Sociology Department at the University of Wisconsin. This paper was presented at the 43rd annual conference of The American Association for Public Opinion Re­search, 19-22 May 1988. Part of this research was origi­nally reported in a master's thesis by the second author, carried out under the direction of the first author. The authors thank John Delamater, Lincoln Moses, and Nora Cate Schaeffer for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper. This paper was partially prepared while the first author was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. The research was partly supported by NSF Grant BNS87— 00864 and by the Graduate School Research Committee of the University of Wisconsin. Please direct correspondence to Lawrence Bobo, Dept. of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706.

Public Opinion Quarterly Volume 53:285-308 (с) 1989 by the American Association for Pubic Opinion research Published by The University of Chicago Press / 0033-362X/89/0053-03/$2.50

1 The effect of education on levels of support for civil liber­ties is a central concern of students of political tolerance. Stouffer's (1955) pioneering work established widely used mea­sures of tolerance,

5          provided  baseline  data on  the  U.S. population,  and documented an important dependence of expressed levels of tolerance on education. Later studies also found that education was a key determinant of tolerance (Nunn, Crockett, and Williams, 1978). Yet, recent work on political tolerance (Sullivan, Piereson, and

10      Marcus, 1982) and on inrergroup attitudes and beliefs (Jackman, 1978; Jackman and Muha, 1984) has questioned whether education encourages more enlight­ened and tolerant views. We are interested in better under­standing when and why increasing years of education may lead to a greater commitment to democratic norms of tolerance.

15         2 Our first objective is to identify more precisely the under­lying traits that higher levels of education are frequently as­sumed to impart. One of the most prominent explanations for the positive relationship between education and tolerance is the greater cognitive sophistication produced by more years of schooling. Few

20    investigations have employed direct measures of cognitive sophistication as predictors of tolerance. We test for such effects in the analysis reported below.

3 Our second objective is to perform a stringent test of the education-tolerance relationship that takes

25      into account feelings of approval or disapproval of the target group whose rights are in question. Recent research on the appropriate definition and measurement of tolerance suggests that merely eliciting support for a civil liberty may not reflect tolerance, since the group in question may be nonthreatening or even

30      liked. Thus, we also examine the effect of education on tolerance when the group in question is opposed by the respondent.

4 Excellent data for conducting this research are available. The 1984 General Social Survey included 15

35 questions on sup­port for civil liberties (three parallel items on each of five nonconformist groups). Importantly, this set of items compensates for weakness of some earlier studies of tolerance by including questions on groups from the left and right ends of the political spectrum. A multiple-item measure of

40  cognitive sophistication is also available. In addition, for four of the five nonconformist groups there are indicators of respondents' approval or disap­proval of the target nonconformist group.

5 Below we review the claims that have been made for and against education as a source of greater

45  tolerance, emphasizing the importance of cognitive sophistication. We next place the concern with the effects of education in the context of appro­priate definition and measurement of tolerance. These discus­sions formulate two hypotheses concerning education and tol­erance which we then test empirically.

 

EDUCATION AND POLITICAL TOLERANCE

50       THE CASE FOR EDUCATION

6      Stouffer's work established that tolerance was higher among those living outside the South, those living in urban as opposed to rural areas, those perceiving little threat from the target group, the

55      nonreligious, men as opposed to women, elites more than the mass public, and the highly educated more than those with less education. He expressed optimism that the overall level of tolerance would increase over time, in part because of the increasing years of education younger cohorts were receiv­ing. Nunn,

60      Crockett, and William's (1978) replication study reported slightly stronger effects of education on tolerance in 1973 than Srouffer had found in 1954. Nunn and colleagues stressed that increasing years of education were part of a learn­ing process that enhanced cognitive skills, cultural knowledge, and cognitive flexibility.

65    In a similar vein, McClosky (1964) maintained that democratic values are complex ideas requiring considerable education and social learning before they will he applied. Davis's (1975) analysis of change noted education ef­fects within each of the cohorts used in his analysis and a contribution by increasing

70    levels of education of 4% to the overall change of 22% in tolerance between 1954 and 1971.

7 Others have argued that education also increases the con­sistency of application of general democratic principles in con­crete or more applied situations. For example, Prothro and Grigg (1960) found that support

75      for abstract democratic norms was very high and unaffected by education. But support for concrete applications of those principles was much lower, with the highly educated exhibiting more consistency than the less well educated. They interpreted these patterns as demonstrat­ing that education provides

80      «greater acquaintance with the logical implications of the broad democratic principles» (Prothro and Grigg, 1960:291). McClosky (1964) argued that education played a large part in the finding that his 'sample of «political influentials» was more supportive of democratic ideology than the «mass electorate.» More

85      recently, Lawrence (1976) found that the highly educated were more likely to apply general norms of tolerance to groups they disliked.

8 In general, it is widely accepted that education increases levels of information. Hyman, Wright, and

90      Reed (1978) exam­ined the effects of education on measures of knowledge and receptivity to new information using measures contained in 54 national sample surveys conducted between the years 1949 and 1971. They found large and consistent effects of education on knowledge and openness to new

95      information.Furthermore, in an equally copious secondary analysis, Hyman and Wright (1979) extended their examination of education effects to in­dicators of values and attitudes. Their major conclusion was that education produced «large, lasting and diverse good ef­fects on values» (Hyman and Wright, 1979:61).

THE CASE AGAINST EDUCATION

100            9 Several criticisms of the education-tolerance hypothesis have been advanced. First, Jackman (1973) suggested that methodological problems, such as acquiescent response bias, resulted in artifactual evidence of an education-tolerance rela­tionship. She found that poorly educated respondents were more likely than

105  the highly educated to agree with simple, strongly worded questions that posed only one side of an issue. Questions presenting both sides of an issue and eschewing agree-disagree response formats were less likely to show education effects.

110            10 Second, effects of education that vary as questions move from abstract principle to concrete issues have been read as showing that education imparts only a superficial degree of commitment to democratic

115  values. Jackman's (1978) analysis of National Election Study data found that education influenced support for the general principle of racial integration but had no impact on support for specific policies aimed at integration or equal treatment of blacks. And contrary to Prothro and Grigg, Jackman found that because

120  education had no ef­fect at all on the concrete policy questions, the highly educated were no more likely to apply the general principle than those with less education.

11  Jackman and Muha (1984) investigated the influence of education on the intergroup attitudes of three

125  dominant groups — whites, men, and the nonpoor — toward their respective subordinate groups — blacks, women, and the poor. Education had sig­nificant effects on only 3 of 43 items pertaining variously to beliefs, feelings, and general and concrete policy orientations in the race, gender, and class contexts. The

130  items most responsive to education were general policy orientation items that invoked a sense of equal treatment of individuals (i.e., individual rights) rather than equality among groups. Jackman's interpretation of these patterns stressed that education does not increase toler­ance so much as it enhances the ability of members of privileged groups to develop sophisticated defenses of their advantaged social status. From

135  this perspective, the greater support for demo­cratic values observed among the highly educated is a superficial advocacy of individual rights that provides a principled basis for rejecting group-based claims on society.

12  Third, Sullivan, Piereson, and Marcus (1979) maintained that the relationship between education and tolerance is largely artifactual. According to this critique, Srouffer (1955) and later analysts relying upon the questions he formulated (Nunn, Crockett, and Williams, 1978; Davis, 1975) were effectively measuring

145  tolerance of leftist groups such as communists. The highly educated were more favorably disposed toward left-lean­ing groups than the poorly educated. Rather than measuring a general commitment to democratic norms, the Srouffer items tapped approval of particular groups. This criticism also called into question evidence of increases over time in the level of tolerance. Accordingly, as the salience of these left-wing

150  groups declined, researchers observed an artifactual increase in levels of tolerance (Sullivan, Piereson, and Marcus, 1982).

13  Fourth, according to some, the schools and the educa­tional process, at least to the point of high

155  school completion, are ineffective at passing on democratic values (Bowles and Gintis, 1976). Zeilman and Sears (1971) concluded that politi­cal socialization of attitudes toward the specific civil liberty of free speech does occur during late childhood but that school children are taught the abstract principle only in slogan form. An even stronger criticism was offered by Merelman (1980). He concluded that schools do

160            little to teach or encourage the learning of democratic values and cannot teach democratic values because the school itself is not a democratic place. Ac­cording to Merelman, the need for order in the schools leads to the creation of an environment that fosters the learning of constraint, hierarchy, and

165  inequality rather than values of free­dom, equality, and tolerance.

COGNITIVE SOPHISTICATION AS THE MEDIATING LINK

170      14 One way to begin to resolve these competing claims is to focus on the qualities (e.g., reasoning processes, value com­mitments, etc.) that education is assumed to impart (Sniderman, Brody, and Kuklinski, 1984). Students of political tolerance have not devoted much attention to examining the process

175  through which education is held to relate to tolerance. Only a few studies have set out to directly measure the intervening characteristics and processes that higher levels of education are purported to set into operation. Zeilman and Sears (1971) found that tolerance for free speech among a large sample of

180  California schoolchildren age 9 to 14 was positively related to a measure of divergent self-esteem. Divergent self-esteem was de­fined as an ability to entertain novel and unusual thoughts. Glock et al. (1975) found that cognitive sophistication, as measured by intellectual interests, openness to new ideas, and

185  willingness to risk uncertainty and ambiguity, reduced anti-Semitism. McClosky and Brill (1983) reported that measures of political knowledge and of general intellectuality were re­lated to an omnibus civil liberties scale.

15  But this research has either relied upon unusual samples, was unconcerned with assessing whether

190  cognitive sophistication mediates education effects, or failed to consider cognitive sophistication in the context of other factors known to influence tolerance. The reasons why education is related to tolerance need to be pursued more directly. We suspect that the conceptual complexity and sophistication of the

195  reasoning process itself is important, not years of education per se. Our first hypothesis, then, is that cognitive sophistication largely mediates the relationship between education and tolerance. In addition, we expect cognitive sophistication to exert effects on tolerance above and beyond other influences such аs

200  those of gender, race, region, age, urbanicity, ideology, and religion.

 

CONCEPTUALIZING AND MEASURING TOLERANCE

16  To this point we have treated tolerance as a concept that enjoys a widely understood, perhaps even

205  straightforward mean­ing. There are several usages now available in the lirerature, two of particular importance. Much of the political tolerance research treats any expression of support for concrete use of a civil liberty as an expression of tolerance (Lawrence, 1976; McClosky and Brill, 1983). This assumption

210  seems reasonable insofar as researchers have been careful to select groups well outside the social and political mainstream. Sullivan and col­leagues challenged this view, however, arguing that tolerance presupposes explicit disapproval of the group or activity in ques­tion (see also Jackman, 1978). This claim

215  has two immediate implications for measurement strategies and tests of theoretical ideas: first, and minimally, tolerance measures should ask about groups from both ends of the political spectrum; and second, it is essential to assess whether the person approves or disap­proves of the target group.

220            17 Conclusions about the effects of education on tolerance may vary substantially by which definition of tolerance under­lies the research. For example, contrary to previous literature, Sullivan and colleagues found no direct effect of education on their «content-controlled» measure of tolerance. This measure asked

225  respondents to identify their least-liked group rather than eliciting reactions to a group preselected by the researcher. Although education tended to be related to the political ideol­ogy of the least-liked groups, with the highly educated tending to select right-wing groups, its effect on tolerance was small and mediated by

230 political ideology and personality measures. Thus, educatoion did have some of the traditionally antici­pated psychological consequences — more secure and flexible orientations — but no strong effect, direct or indirect, on levels of tolerance.

235      18 The large number of previous studies that found education to have effects on tolerance stand in sharp contrast to the results of Sullivan and colleagues. We propose to test some of these ideas; in particular, we undertake a stringent test of the education-tolerance hypothesis. Our second major hypothesis is\that

240  education enhances tolerance even when the target group is disapproved or disliked. That is, higher levels of education are indeed the source of «sobber second thought» about re­stricting the rights of those one opposes. Our first and second hypotheses are linked in that we expect cognitive sophistica­tion to mediate

245  the effect of education on tolerance even once feelings toward the target have been controlled. A principal reason why increasing years of education leads to respect for the rights of those one opposes is the greater cognitive sophis­tication more education imparts. In short, education changes cognitive style in ways that

250  increase the likelihood ofrecognizing the importance of extending civil liberties to those we dis­like.

19 The analysis proceeds in three parts. First, we develop a scale of political tolerance. Close attention

255 to the dependent variable is in order since some recent analysts have questioned whether tolerance is a single dimension (Sullivan, Piereson, and Marcus, 1979; McCutcheon, 1985). Second, we test the cognitive sophistication hypothesis in a multiple regression framework, using a Civil Liberties scale that involves

260 five  sepa­rate  groups  spanning   the political spectrum. Third,  we  test  for education  and cognitive sophistication effects on tolerance of four separate target groups among those respondents holding explicitly negative attitudes toward the target group.

DATA AND MEASURES...

ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

265   A. Tolerance as Single Dimension

B. Education, Cognitive Sophistication, and Tolerance

C. Affect, Education, Cognition Sophistication, and Toler­ance

 

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

270            20 Our research has three principal findings. First , there is a general tolerance dimension that embraces groups from both ends of the political spectrum. Regardless of the group or the type of behavior at issue,

275  we found very high internal and external consistency for the tolerance scale and its component items. There is some evidence of behaviorspecific and target group-specific patterns of response. None of these dif­ferences is so large or consistent as to call into question the existence of a general tolerance dimension.

280  Second, educa­tion is strongly related to tolerance, even for a wide array of groups and even among those respondents explicitly opposed to the target group. Third, cognitive sophistication accounts for a substantial fraction of the effect of education on toler­ance. Taken together, these findings provide

285  confirmation of previous claims about the presence and sources (i.e., cognitive sophistication) of education effects on willingness to support the rights of disliked groups.


 

As a check on our findings the models shown in Tables 5 and 7 were estimated using the 1987 General Social Survey data (Davis and Smith, 1987). This analysis confirms our results using the 1984 data. For example, education has a strongnet effect on the full Civil Liberties scale (b= .26, p < .001), as does the vocabulary measure (b= .59, p < .001). Adding the vocabulary measure reduced the net education coefficient by 144%. Similarly, the main findings of the group-specific analyses examining only those with negative attitudes toward the itarget group are also confirmed. Education had positive net effects for the communist (b= .05, p<01), homosexual (b= 1.04, p < .05), racist (b= .05 , p < .01). and militarist b= 06, p<.001) subscales. In each case, the vocabulary measure mediated a substansial fraction of the education effect.

21  Our research has several implications for advocates (Nunn, Crockett, and Williams, 1978; Davis,

290  1975; Well, 1985) and detractors (Sullivan, Piereson, and Marcus, 1979; Jackman and Muha, 1984) of the education -tolerance hypothesis. Our find­ings suggest that previous research that relied on Stouffer-type items has not been seriously compromised by a focus on left-wing target groups (cf. Mueller, 1988).

295  Questions on these groups behave much like those about right-wing groups and responses to both types of groups form an underlying tolerance dimen­sion. By implication then, increases in levels of tolerance among the American mass public documented by Nunn, Crockett, and Williams (1978) and by Davis

300  (1975) are, contrary to some interpretations (Sullivan, Piereson, and Marcus, 1979), probably very real.

9. Lack of a perceived threat measure is not a liability. First, Sullivan, Piereson, and Marcus did not find a relationship between perceived threat and education. Second, Green and Waxman (1987) found that education still affects how to­lerance is expressed among those who feel threatened by a group. Our analysis differs also in that Sullivan, Piereson, and Marcus included in their omnibus personality measure a dog­matism scale. Including a dogmatism measure might further reduce the impact of education on tolerance, but we do not have such a measure available. Importantly, such an effect, I though as yet undemonstrated with these data, would be con­sistent with our cognitive sophistication hypothesis.

22  The difference between our results and those of Sullivan and colleagues lies in a distinction between tolerance under ordinary conditions and tolerance under extraordinary or ex­treme conditions. We have not

305  employed the perceived threat, general norms, and personality measures used in the Sullivan model, but the effects of education we found occurred net of political ideology, trust in people (psychological insecurity), and feelings of disapproval of the target group, and without regard to the left — or right-wing proclivities

310  of the target group. 9) This suggests that the key difference between our results and those of Sullivan and colleagues involves the differing dependent measures. We suspect that Sullivan and colleagues found only weak indirect effects of education on tolerance because their measure of tolerance identifies extremely

315  disliked groups. For example, several of the target groups — the Ku Klux Klan, the Black Panthers, and the Symbionese Lib­eration Army —identified in the Sullivan measure have histo­ries of violence and

320  criminal activity. They are nor merely advocates of nonconformist viewpoints. Tolerance ofnonconformist but less extreme groups and the connection of educa­tion to the latter are probably underestimated by this measurement strategy.

23  Importantly, the sort of «ordinary» dislike/disapproval we have indexed may be a larger component

325  of routine politics than is the extraordinary dislike/disapproval we suspect is ac­corded «least liked» groups. There are probably many more occasions when we are called upon to tolerate those views we merely dislike than those we find to be extraordinarily objec­tionable. There are also a number of nonconformist

330 groups whose ideas and actions do not involve violence or lawbreak-ing but whose views are well outside the mainstream. In addi­tion, other research shows that the positive effects of education on tolerance extend to greater approval among the highly edu­cated for social protest by nonconformist groups (Hall,

335 Rodeghier, and Useem, 1986). Our results suggest that educa­tion, partly via its impact on conceptual  ability or cognitive sophistication, is important for tolerance of the merely disliked group but is unimportant for tolerance of the extraordinarily disliked group.

340            24 Jackman's analysis concerned attitudes toward broad social categories (gender, race, and class), not attitudes toward the expression of particular points of view. We believe our results indicate more than ideological sophistication on the part of the highly educated. In this sense, our results run counter to the

345  interpretation of education effects proposed by Jackman. We suspect that the difference involves a middle ground be­tween support for abstract democratic principles and support for more sweeping policy changes

350  (e.g., affirmative action or mandatory school desegregation) that benefit particular groups. This middle ground involves support for the rights of indi­vidual members of nonconformist groups to advocate their ideas in public forums. As Weil (1985:459) recently argued, «the processes and reasons which constrain

355  the better educated to give more liberal responses may not be as admirable as once thought, but something may be better than nothing: one pre­sumes that the recipients of apparently liberal opinions (even if somewhat hypocritical) prefer such constraints to heartfelt illiberal responses.» Activities such as political

360  speech, the pub­lication of one's views, and the right to hold prestigious positions (e.g., college teacher) are vital means of drawing atten­tion to problems and persuading others to support policy changes. Viewed in this light, it is meaningful to find that education increases commitment to the extension of free-speech rights to those we dislike.

365            25 Sullivan's model and Jackman's research identify bound­aries on the education-tolerance relationship. These bound­aries constitute particular, and in some ways limited, condi­tions when education fails to

370  increase tolerance. Our research shows the circumstances when education has large and important effects on tolerance. Of course, education is only one of several factors influencing tolerance and, as cohort analyses show, improvements in average educational attainment are not the main factor producing change

375  over time in levels of toler­ance. Future reseach should not view the education-tolerance relationship as either genenrally weak or strong. Rather, edu­cation is associated with higher levels of tolerance, even among those who oppose a group, so long as the group in question is not extraordinarily threatening or

380  extreme.This relationship exists in part because education is associated with more sophisticated styles of reasoning.

REFERENCES ( PARTIAL LISTING )

Bowles, Samuel, and Herbert Gintis (1976). Schooling in Capitalist America. New York: Basic Books.

Davis, James A. (1975). «Communism, conformity, cohorts, and categories: American tolerance in 1954 and 1972-73.» Americal Journal of Sociology 81:491-513

Davis, James A., and Tom W. Smith (1987). General So­cial Surveys, 1972-1987: Cumulative Codebook. Chicago: NORC, Universiry of Chicago.

Gibson, James L., and Richard D Bingham (1982). «On the conceptualization and measurement of political tolerance.» American Political Science Review 76:603-620.

Glock, Charles Y, Robert Wuthnow, Jane A. Piliavin, and Metta Spencer (1975). Adolescent Prejudice. New York: Harper and Row.

Green, David P., and Lisa M. Waxman (1987). «Direct threat and political tolerance : An experimenral analysis of the tolerance of blacks toward racists». Public Opinion Quarterly 51:149-165

Hall Robert, Mark Roderheir, and Bert Useem (1986). «Ef­fects of education on attitude to protest». American Sociologi­cal Review 51:564-573

Hyman, Herbert H., and Charles R. Wright (1979). Education's Lasting Influence on Values. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hyman, Herbert H., Charles R. Wright, and John Shelton Reed (1978). The Enduring Effects of Education . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Jackman, Mary R. (1973). «Education and prejudice or edu­cation and response set?» American Sociological Review. 38:327-339

1978

    «General and applied tolerance: Does education increase commitment to racial integration?» American Journal of Po­litical Science 22:302-324

Jackman, Mary R., and Michael J. Muha (1984). «Educa­tion and intergroup attitudes: Moral enlightenment, superficial democratic commitment, or ideological refinement?» Ameri­can Sociological Review 49:751-769, , ,

Krosnick, Jon A., and Duane F. Alwin (1987),. «An evalu­ation of a cognitive theory of response-order effects in survey measurement». Public Opinion Quarterly 51:201-219

Lawrence, David G. (1976). «Procedural norms and tolerance: A reassessment «American Political Science Review 70:80-100

McClosky, Herbert (1964). «Consensus and ideology in American politics». American Political Science Review 58:361-382

McClosky, Herbert, and Alida Brill (1983). Dimensions of Tolerance. New York: Russell Sage.

McCutcheon, Allan L. (1985). «A latent class analysis of tolerance for nonconformity in the American public». Public Opinion Quarterly 49:474-488.

 

«A TECHNOLOGY OF BEHAVIOR»

by B. F. Skinner

1. In trying to solve the terrifying problems that face us in the world today, we naturally turn to the things that we do best. We play from strength, and our strength is science and technology. To contain a population explosion we look for better methods of birth control. Threatened by nuclear holo­caust, we build bigger deterrent forces and anti-ballistic-mis­sile systems. We try to stave off world famine with new foods and better ways of growing them. Improved sanitation and medicine will, we hope, control disease: better housing and transportation will solve the problems of the ghettos; and new ways of reducing or disposing of waste will stop the pollution of the environment. We can point to remarkable achievements in all these fields, and it is not surprising that we should try to extend them. But things grow steadily worse, and it is disheartening to find that technology itself is increasingly at fault. Sani­tation and medicine have made the problems of population more acute, war has acquired a new horror with the invention of nuclear weapons, and the affluent pursuit of Happiness is largely responsible for pollution. As Darlington has said, «Every new source from which man has increased his power on the earth has been used to diminish the prospects of his suc­cessors. All his progress has been made at the expense of dam­age to his environment, which he cannot repair and could not foresee.

25         2. Whether or not he could have foreseen the damage, man must repair it or all is lost. And he can do so if he will recog­nize the nature of the difficulty. The application of the physi­cal and biological sciences alone will not solve our problems, because the solutions lie in another field. Better contraceptives will

30      control population only if people use them. New weapons may offset new defenses and vice versa, but a nuclear holo­caust can be prevented only if the conditions under which nations make war can be changed.

35      New methods of agriculture and medicine will not help if they are not practiced, and housing is a matter not only of buildings and cities but of how people live. Overcrowding can be corrected only by inducing people not to crowd, and the environment will continue to deteriorate until polluting practices are abandoned.

40            3. In short, we need to make vast changes in human behavior, and we cannot make them with the help of nothing more than physics or biology, no matter how hard we try. (And there are other problems, such as the breakdown of our educational system and the dissaffection and revolt of the young, to which

45      physical and biological technologies are so obviously irrelevant that they have never been applied.) It is not enough to «use technology with a deeper understanding of human issues», or to «dedicate technology to man's spiritual needs», or to «en­courage technologists to look at human problems. Such ex­pressions imply

50      that where human behavior begins, technology stops, and that we must carry on, as we have in the past, with what we have learned from personal experience or from those collections of personal experiences called history, or with the distillations of experience to be found in folk wisdom and prac­tical rules of

55  thumb. But these have been available for centuries, and all we have to show for them is the state of the world today.

4.      What we need is a technology of behavior. We could solve our problems quickly enough if we could

60      adjust the growth of the world's population as precisely as we adjust the course of a spaceship, or improve agriculture and industry with some of the confidence with which we accelerate high-energy par­ticles, or move toward a peaceful world with something like the steady progress with which physics has approached

65      abso­lute zero (even though both remain presumably out of reach). But a behavioral technology comparable in power and preci­sion to physical and biological technology is lacking, and those who do not find the very possibility ridiculous are more likely to be frightened by it than reassured. That is how far we

70      are from «understanding human issues» in the sense in which physics and biology understand their fields, and how far we are from preventing the catastrophe toward which the world seems to be inexorably moving.

5.      Twenty-five hundred years ago it might have been said that man understood himself as well as any

75      other part of his world. Today he is the thing he understands least. Physics and biology have come a long way, but there has been no compa­rable development of anything like a science of human behav­ior. Modern physics and biology successfully treat subjects that are certainly no simpler than many aspects of human

80      behavior. The difference is that the instruments and methods they use are of commensurate complexity. The fact that equally power­ful instruments and methods are not available in the field of human behavior is

85      not an explanation, it is only part of the puzzle. Was putting a man on the moon actually easier than improving education in our public schools? Or than construct­ing better kinds of living space for everyone? Or making it possible for everyone to be gainfully employed and, as a result, to enjoy a higher standard of living? The choice was not a matter of priorities, for no one could have said that it was more important to

90      get to the moon. The exciting thing about getting to the moon was its feasibility. Science and technology had reached the point at which, with one great push, the thing could be done. There is no comparable

95      excitement about the problems posed by human behavior. We are not close to solutions.

6. It is easy to conclude that there must be something about human behavior which makes a scientific analysis, and hence an effective technology, impossible, but we have not by any means exhausted the

100 possibilities. There is a sense in which it can be said that the methods of science have scarcely yet been applied to human behavior. We have used the instruments of science, we have counted and measured and compared; but something essential to scientific practice is missing in almost all current discussions of

105 human behavior. It has to do with our treatment of the causes of behavior. (The term «cause» is no longer common in sophisticated scientific writing, but it will serve well enough here.)

7. Man's first experience with causes probably came from his own behavior: things moved because he

110  moved them. If  other things moved, it was because someone else was moving them, and if the mover could not be seen, it was because he was invisible. The Greek gods served in this wy as the cause of physical phenomena. They were usually outside the things they moved but they might enter into and

115  «possess» them. Physics and biology soon abandoned explanations of this sort and turned to more useful kinds of causes, but the step has not been decisively taken in the field of human behavior. Intelli­gent people no longer believe that men are possessed by de­mons (although the exorcism of devils is

120  occasionally practiced, and the daimonic has reappeared in the writings of psy­chotherapists), but human behavior is still commonly attrib­uted to indwelling agents.

8. Physics and biology moved farther away from personified causes when they began to attribute the

125  behavior of things to essences, qualities, or natures. To the medieval alchemist, for example, some of the properties of a substance might be due to the mercurial essence, and substances were compared in what might have been called a «chemistry of individual differences». Newton complained of the practice in his

130  contemporaries: «To tell us that every species of thing is endowed with an occult specific quality by which it acts and produces manifest effects is to tell us nothing.» Biology continued for a long time to appeal to the nature of living things, and it did not wholly abandon vital forces until the twentieth century. Behavior,

135  however, is still attributed to human nature, and there is an extensive «psychology of individual differences» in which people are compared and described in terms of traits of character, capacities, and abilities.

      9. Almost everyone who is concerned with human affairs — as political scientist, philosopher, man of letters, economist, psychologist, linguist, sociologist, theologian, anthropologist, educator, or psychotherapist — continues to talk about human behavior in this prescientific way. Every issue of a

145  daily paper, every magazine, every professional journal, every book with any bearing whatsoever on human behavior will supply ex­amples. We are told that to control the number of people in the world we need to change attitudes toward children, over­come pride in size of family or in sexual potency, build some

150  sense of responsibility toward offspring, and reduce the role played by a large family in allaying concern for old age. To work for peace we must deal with the will to power or the paranoid delusions of leaders; we must remember that wars begin in the minds of men, that there is something suicidal in man — a death

155  instinct perhaps— which leads to war, and that man is aggressive by nature. To solve the problems of the poor we must inspire self-respect, encourage initiative, and reduce frustration. To allay the dissaffection of the young we must provide a sense of purpose and reduce feelings of alienation or hopelessness. Realizing

160  that we have no effective means of doing any of this, we ourselves may experience a crisis of belief or a loss of confidence, which can be corrected only by return­ing to a faith in man's inner capacities. This is staple fare. Almost no one questions it. Yet there is nothing like it in modem physics or most of biology,

165  and that fact may well explain why a science and a technology of behavior have been so long delayed.

10.  It is usually supposed that the «behavioristic» objec­tion to ideas, feelings, traits of character, will,

170  and so on concerns the stuff of which they are said to be made. Certain stubborn questions about the nature of mind have, of course, been debated for more than twenty-five hundred years and still go unanswered. How, for example, can the mind move the body? As late as 1965 Karl Popper could put the question this

175  way: «What we want is to understand how such nonphysical things as purposes, deliberations, plans, decisions, theories, tensions and values can play a part in bringing about physical changes in the physical world». And, of course, we also want to know where these nonphysical things come from. To that question the Greeks had a simple answer: from the gods....

180            11. We cannot take that line today, and the commonest alternative is to appeal to antecedent physical events. A person's genetic endowment, a product of the evolution of the species, is said to explain part of

185  the workings of his mind and his personal history the rest. For example, because of (physical) competition during the course of evolution people now have (nonphysical) feelings of aggression which lead to (physical) acts of hostility. Or, the (physical) punishment a small child receives when he engages in sex

190  play produces (nonphysical) feelings of anxiety which interfere with his (physical) sexual behavior as an adult. The nonphysical stage obviously bridges long periods of time: aggression reaches back into millions of years of evolutionary history, and anxiety acquired when one is a child survives into old age.

195      12. The problem of getting from one kind of stuff to another could be avoided if everything were either mental or physical, and both these possibilities have been considered. Some philosophers have tried to stay within the world of the mind, arguing that only immediate experience is real, and ex­perimental psychology

200  began as an attempt to discover the mental laws which governed interactions among mental ele­ments. Contemporary «intraphysic» theories of psychotherapy tell us how one feeling leads to another (how frustration breeds aggression, for example), how feelings interact, and how feel­ings which have been put

205  out of mind fight their way back in. The complimentary line — that the mental stage is really physical — was taken, curiously enough, by Freud, who believed that physiology would eventually explain the workings of the men­tal apparatus. In a similar vein, many physiological psycholo­gists continue to talk

210  freely about states of mind, feelings, and so on, in the belief that it is only a matter of time before we shall understand their physical nature.

13. The dimensions of the world of mind and the transition from one world to another do raise

215 embarrassing problems, but it is usually possible to ignore them, and this may be good strategy, for the important objection to mentalism is of a very different sort. The world of the mind steals the show. Behavior is not recognized as a subject in its own right. In psycho­therapy, for example, the disturbing

220 things a person does or says are almost always regarded merely as symptoms, and compared with the fascinating dramas which are staged in the depths of the mind, behavior itself seems superficial indeed. In lin­guistics and literature criticism of what a man says is almost always treated as the expression of ideas or

225 feelings. In political science, theology, and economics, behavior is usually regarded as the material from which one infers attitudes, intentions, needs, and so on. For more than twenty five hundred years close attention has been paid to mental life, but only recently has any effort been made to study human behavior as some­thing more than a mere by-product.

 

230            14. The conditions of which behavior is a function are also neglected. The mental explanation brings curiosity to an end. We see the effect in casual discourse. If we ask someone, «Why did you go to the theater?» and he says, «Because I felt like going», we are apt to take his reply as a kind of explanation. It

235  would be much more to the point to know what has happened when he has gone to the theater in the past,   what he heard or read about the play he went to see, and what other things in his past or present environments might have induced him to go (as opposed to doing something else), but we accept «I felt

240  like going» as a sort of summary of all this and are not likely to ask for details.

14.     The professional psychologist often stops at the same point. A long time ago William James

245  corrected a prevailing view of the relation between feelings and action by asserting, for example, that we do not run away because we are afraid but are afraid because we run away. In other words, what we feel when we feel afraid is our behavior — the very behavior which in the traditional view expresses the feeling

250  and is explained by it. But how many of those who have considered James's argument have noted that no antecedent event has in fact been pointed out? Neither «because» should be taken seriously. No explanation has been given as to why we run away and feel afraid.

255        16.  Whether we regard ourselves as explaining feelings or the behavior said to be caused by feelings, we give very little attention to antecedent circumstances. The psychotherapist leams about the early life of his patient almost exclusively from the patient's memories, which are known to be unreliable, and he may

260  even argue that what is important is not what actually happened but what the patient remembers. In the psychoana­lytic literature there must be at least a hundred references to felt anxiety for every reference to a punishing episode to which anxiety might be traced. We even seem to prefer antecedent histories which are

265  clearly out of reach. There is a good deal of current interest, for example, in what must have happened during the evolution of the species to explain human behavior, and we seem to speak with special confidence just because what actually happened can only be inferred.

 

270     17.  Unable to understand how or why the person we see behaves as he does, we attribute his behavior to a person we cannot see, whose behavior we cannot explain either but about whom we are not inclined to ask questions. We probably ac­cept this strategy not so much because of any lack of interest or power but

275  because of a longstanding conviction that for much of human behavior there are no relevant antecedents. The func­tion of the inner man is to provide an explanation which will not be explained in turn. Explanation stops with him. He is not a mediator between past history and current behavior, he is a center from which

280  behavior emanates. He initiates, originates, and creates, and in doing so he remains, as he was for the Greeks, divine. We say that he is autonomous — and, so far as a science of behavior is concerned, that means miracu­lous.

285     18. The position is, of course, vulnerable. Autonomous man serves to explain only the things we are not yet able to explain in other ways. His existence depends upon our ignorance, and he naturally loses status as we come to know more about be­havior. The task of a scientific analysis is to explain how the behavior of a person as a physical system is related to the  conditions under which the human species evolved and

290 the conditions under which the individual lives. Unless there is indeed some capricious or creative intervention, these events must be related, and no intervention is in fact needed. The contingencies of survival responsible for man's genetic endowment would produce tendencies to act aggressively, not feel

295 ings of aggression. The punishment of sexual behavior changes sexual behavior, and any feelings which may arise are at best by-products. Our age is not suffering from anxiety but from the accidents, crimes,

300 wars, and other dangerous and painful things to which people are so often exposed. Young people drop out of school, refuse to get jobs, and associate only with others of their own age not because they feel alienated but because of defective social environments in homes, schools, factories, and elsewhere.

 

305   19. We can follow the path taken by physics and biology by turning directly to the relation between behavior and the envi­ronment and neglecting supposed mediating states of mind. We do not need to try to discover what personalities, states of mind, feelings, traits of character, plans, purposes, intentions, 

310  or the other prerequisites of autonomous man really are in order to get on with a scientific analysis of behavior.

From: Beyond Freedom And Dignity, by B.F. Skinner. Copyright @ 1971 by B.F. Skinner. Reprinted in Hogins and Yarber, «Models for Writing».

 

 «HOW PSYCHOLOGY SANCTIONS THE CULT OF THE SELF»

by Michael Wallach and Lise Wallach

1. THEORIES IN ACADEMIC PSYCHOLOGY

A. «INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS» THEORY

1. For different reasons, most current approaches in psy­chology give sanction to the idea that self seeking is not merely an inclination, but the essence of our nature.

 

5             2. Take, for example, the writers on «interpersonal relations.» Were you to plow through these voluminous writings, you would leam that the model for human behavior is the pe­nurious* merchant of Adam Smith's England, whose singleminded aim was to get as much as he could and to give as little.

10   Harold H. Kelley and John W. Thibaut, leading authors in the field, tell us that we should always condition our com­mitment to the welfare of others , and to values such as justice, upon the likely returns to ourselves. «Being considerate of other persons' needs and helping them attain their goals», Kelley and Thibaut write,

15      «will often be found necessary in order to obtain the cooperation from them that the individual desires». There's no reason beyond that for being considerate because values have no value apart from what they produce in return. «The functionally optimal rules», they write, «are highly con­tingent.»

* penurious — stingy

20   3. The governing idea, in short, is that we should do unto 20 others as they have done unto us.

B. «SOCIAL LEARNING» THEORY

1.      The so-called «social learning» theorists like Albert Bandura write in a similar vein, arguing that all

25      we care about in a given situation is what's in it for ourselves. You are con­cerned about a suffering friend? Trace all the wires back, he argues, and you will find that you really are concerned about what that friend's suffering might imply for yourself — that he might treat you less kindly, for example. To the extent we do

30      act altruistically, it's for social approval: internal standards of conduct — such as not killing people — are simply ways to ward off trouble with the authorities.

C. «LIBERAL» ACADEMIC THEORY

1.    Even the so-called «liberal» academics, who question both social learning theory and psychological dogma in general — along with the individualism that flows from it can't seem to break away from the premise that self interest must be the ground base of all human motivation. Eleanor Maccoby, for

40      example,rejects the view that infants become attached to their caretaker merely because that person relieves their personal distresses such as hunger. So how does Maccoby explain this attachments? By positing the parent as the «agent» who helps the infant master its environment. The child can't feel affec­tion, in other

45      words, unless it receives something in return.  Maccoby rejects one form ofself-centeredness only to exchange it for another.

2.      Similarly, in Maccoby's view, acquiring social skills means mastering bargaining plays. As children

50      grow up they gain the skill «to tailor their actions for different audiences, depending on the nature of the social self that they wish to project». Generosity becomes a way to cut the best deal. We learn to act unselfishly by «weighing future gains against present ones.»

3.      Maccoby acknowledges that a good family life requires more. «When a sense of mutual sharing

55      exists», she writes, «bargaining or dominance of one member's objectives over another's becomes less important». But she can offer nothing from the realm of psychology to help families move in that direction. Because she keeps self-interest as the basic psycho­logical building block in social relations, she has

60      nowhere to turn other than the contractual balancing of interest that she senses as missing the point.

4.      When students study psychology in college, views like these come across in their texts. Selfishness,

65      students learn, is what makes the world turn. «Doing something for other people is gratifying needs in yourself, otherwise you wouldn't do it», said one of those interviewed who seems to have paid close attention to his texts. «There is a part of me that needs to believe that altruism is alive and well, especially

70      in me», said another. «But there's also a cynicism — something like altruism can't exist».

 

II.                 THEORIES IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

A. FREUDIAN PSYCHOANALYSIS

1.      Growing alongside academic psychology has been cli­nical practice, most notably psychoanalysis.

75    Sigmund Freud began his work towards the end of the nineteenth century, when the empirical sciences, in their high noon of promise, were going to unlock all the mysteries. Previously, questions of human behavior had been the realm of religion and moral philosophy. Basing his theories totally upon biology, Freud

80    became classic iconoclast.

2.     To Victorians who wouldn't even mention bodily func­tions — let alone sex — in polite society, Freud declared that their lives were governed by these very things, the most un­mentionable in particular.

85      «All the emotional relationships of sympathy, friendship, trust, and the like, which can be turned to good account in our lives.» he wrote, «are genetically linked with sexuality and have developed from pure sexual desires». According to Freud, everything we do serves ultimately one of two biological functions: to rid

90      ourselves of unpleasant external stimulation, such as cold, or to make use what's outside us to satisfy an internal need, such as — he would say — hunger or sex.

3.         «All instincts which do not find a vent without turn in­wards», wrote Nietzche, of whom Freud

95      was an avid student.  «The whole inner world burst apart when man's external outlet became obstructed». Freud saw that we sometimes need to «sublimate» such energies into, say, work or arts, or accept restraints upon them, for the good of society. But such re­straints were fundamentally at odds with our nature — not

100  with just part of our nature, but with all of it. An excess of restraints causes the energies to «turn inwards», producing neu­rosis.

4.      Two main streams of clirical theory have challenged Freud's theory in fundamental respects. But

105  where each sight  have countered the emerging culture of selfishness, they both ended up giving even more legitimacy to this culture than Freud had.

B. NEO-FREUDISM

1.      The neo-Freudians like Harry Stack Sullivan, Karen Homey, and Erich Fromm thought that Freud

110  had been much too pessimistic in his assessment of human nature. Homey, for example, disagreed strongly with Freud's view that «there is no liking or disliking of people, no sympathy, no generosity, no feeling of justice, no devotion to a cause, which is not in the last analysis determined by libidinal or destructive

115  drives». Our actions can arise not just from bodily needs and urges, she maintained but from concern for others, a desire for justice, and the like. Since we can hold such concerns outside our­selves, the neo-Freudians. might have seen the potential of both external restrictions and internal standards of conduct in

120  furthering those ends. Having abandoned Freud's biological basis, they had no remaining reason to regard such prescrip­tions as fundamentally hostile.

2.      But they did regard these prescriptions as hostile, even more than Freud had. Homey deplored the

125  «tyranny ofshoulds»  which «impair the spontaneity of feelings, wishes, thoughts and beliefs». The neo-Freudians rejected social prescriptions not because we were so bad, as Freud had thought, but be­cause we were so good. If we were only freed of such restraints and left to get sufficiently in touch with ourselves,

130  the result would be beneficial both for ourselves and others. Homey cas­tigated the «whip of inner dictates» and declared that she wanted the individual «to dispense with [them] altogether».

3.      The neo-Freudians approached the individual psyche a little the way free market conservatives view

135  the economy. Governmental and other restraints are the problems, and if we just let everybody do their own thing, it will all work out in the end. These neo-Freudians were therapists working with indi­vidual patients rather than social problems — patients who, for the most part, had strong internal values to begin

140   with. In the background, moreover, was Stalin's Russia and the rise of Nazi Germany in which Goebbels was calling upon the German nation to «submit the I to thou» and the «individual to the whole». In this context there seemed compelling reason to focus on the self as the bulwark of human freedom». «Don't be

145 selfish becomes one of the most powerful ideological tools in suppressing spontaneity and the free development of personal­ity», said Fromm, who was himself German. Neo-Freudians like Fromm did not urge selfishness; to the contrary, they said that truly loving yourself did not mean striving for pleasure,

150 material gains or success. But they did romanticize the self, seeing it as Rousseau's noble savage, and did not sufficiently appreciate that darkness comes not only from without — in the form of Hitler — but from within as well.

C. HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

155            1. If the neo-Freudians romanticized human nature, then the humanistic psychologists like Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were positively dewy-eyed. Where the neo-Freudians had attacked external restraints and prescriptions, the human­ists attacked all forms of influence or determination outside the

160  self.  Each man and woman is not a «piece of the conti­nent», as Donne wrote, but «an island unto himself, in a very real sense» said Rogers, «and he can only build bridges to other islands if he is first of all willing

165  to be himself and permitted to be himself». Autonomy was the absolute; the crucial goal of therapy, as of life, was «to be that self which one truly is», as Kierkegaard had said — or, as Maslow and Rogers themselves put it, to «self actualize».

2.      Rogers cited with approval the decline of institutions — «government, the military, the church, the

170  corporation, the school — because these were sources of external determination that prevented us from being ourselves. He regarded with favor the decline of conventional marriage as well. Those who choose to live together without it «simply believe that a partnership has significance only if it is a mutually

175  enhancing,growing relationship». Of the healthy individual, Rogers said, «He is unlikely to make any commitment for all of his life because he knows he cannot predict himself that well».

3.      Actualizing the individual «may sound as though it were a selfish or unsocial criterion», Rogers

180wrote, «but it does not prove to be so, since a deep and helpful relationship as expe­rienced is actualizing». Rogers, like the neo-Freudians, simply took for granted that the «self-actualized» individual would do naturally what was benevolent and good.

185      4.   It is time to ask whether these teachings of the psychology profession are rooted in science — in empirical evidence — or whether they are based instead on ideology and predilec­tion. Further, we need to ask whether these teachings serve to heal, both individually and collectively; or whether seeking personal

190 happiness directly, as they tend to counsel, only makes that goal more elusive.

III. EVIDENCE OF THE INADEQUACY OF CURRENT THEORIES

1.      Freud served an important role, stripping way the pre­tense and hypocrisy of the Victorian era and

195  demonstrating that people need to come to grips with the best in themselves. But he led psychology astray in portraying all motivation as derived from bodily needs, with the implication that in the core of our being we are self-serving beyond redemption, and only gamesmanship and external restraints can hold us in check.

200            2. Where Freud saw all motivation arising from the or­ganism, pressing outward like steam from a boiler, subsequent research showed that the process often works the other way around — that what we do is often a response to something outside us, without reference to bodily needs ... Ethologist Irenaus Eibl-

205  Eibesfeldt presents a fair amount of evidence that even the way adults show affection for one another derived in evolution from the way they have cared for their young, rather than vice versa as Freud had maintained. There is a social basis to behavior; and if to sex, why not to other areas of life?

210            3. Then, too, there was research into what are called «cog­nitive» and «motor» processes. In humans and other species, the development of skills like perceiving, grasping, exploring, speaking, seem to some degree to have a life of their own, apart from bodily needs. More important, sociability generally — getting

215  along with others — seems to stand as a motive on its own... There is also evidence of altruistic inclinations in very young children. Those barely over a year old will bring their mother to help a friend in distress and offer that friend their teddy bear and security blanket...

220            4. Freud was influenced by Darwin, but even in the great march of evolution, it is genes that survive, not individuals. Behavior like that just described, generous in the root sense of the word, is thus totally consistent with Darwin's theories. Is it not possible, even likely, that evolution has equipped us to act

225  cooperatively — generously — as well as in a self-centred fash­ion?

IV. THE SOCIAL THEORY OF BEHAVIOR:

                        How the Evidence

                      Has Been Explained Away

1.    Unfortunately, though observations of this sort have not gone unnoticed «in the world of psychological theory,... mod­em psychologists have responded by replacing biological needs with

230  psychological ones in order to save their egocentric theory».

2.    Cognitive and motor skills were explained by needs for «novelty» or «mastery». Social involvement was accounted for by needs for «security», «approval», and the like. Whenever the physical or social

235  environment seemed to pull the organism to do things, needs for the self were always posited as being served. All this to preserve the Freudian assumption of egoism even though the profession had abandoned the biologi­cal premise that made this assumption necessary.

240            3. Typical of this mindset is David C. McClelland's moving portrait of his mother-in-law, a strong, warm, impressive woman who was active in improving race relations, in the peace move­ment and in counselling, while giving emotional support to her large family... McClelland attributes this remarkable

245  woman's character with no slight intended — to a «need for power»; it is nothing but «the most advanced stage of expressing the power drive»...

4.Once the psychologic mind locked onto the egoistic as­sumption, it couldn't seem to let go. These

250  psychologists even take evidence that seems to point in the opposite direction and use it to confirm their case. Take, for example, the 1969 ex­periment in the New York City subway in which a man would stagger and collapse to the floor of a car. Fellow passengers came spontaneously to the victim's aid 80 percent of

255  the time. In almost every case in which the passengers didn't offer assistance, the victim had been made to appear drunk, but passen­gers helped in many of those cases anyway.

5.Given the level of civility that normally prevails in New York City's subways, such a study could be

260  encouraging evi­dence that an innate capacity for altruists does exist. How did the researchers interpret the responses of the subway-riders? «A selfish desire to rid oneself of an unpleasant emotional state»... Conditioned to find a cynical basis for people helping one another, such researchers become incapable of seeing any­thing else.

265            6. They generally don't even look for anything else. In the subway study, for example, the variable that the researchers tested was the «cost» to the bystander of providing help by making some of the victims

270  appear drunk. What the research­ers didn't do was put the shoe on the other foot and vary the cost to the victim of not receiving help; to show, in other words, the victim in varying degrees of distress, to see whether our generosity can increase, not in accordance with our own internal calculations of benefit, but in

275  accordance with another's need. One team of researchers conducted just such a study, and discovered that drivers in a campus parking lot were more likely to give a stranger a ride to a town five miles away if the situation seemed to be an emergency (64 per cent helped) than if it did not (45 per cent helped). What

280  mattered here, appar­ently, was the need of the recipient, and not the driver's calcu lation of cost to him or herself. Yet on the whole, the psychol­ogy profession has framed its studies to give such possibilities short shrift.

V. A REVIEW OF THE IMPLICATIONS OF EGOTISM-ORIENTED PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES

1.      Freud, along with academic psychologists like these, erred on the side of cynicism. Tracing back all

285  motivation to «needs», whether biological or otherwise, they acknowledged nothing but narrow self-interest from which behavior might arise. Th neo-Freudians and the humanistic psychologists, by contrast..., sensed the heights to which humanity might rise. «It is as if Freud supplied to us the sick half of

290  psychology», Maslow said, «and we must now fill it out with the healthy half».

2.    But the humanistic psychologists did more than fill out the healthy half. They seemed to forget about the dark side com­pletely. Freud at least had seen the value of social prescriptions and constraints in

295  enabling people to get along with one another. Where he erred was in seeing these as essentially hostile to people, rather than as a form of training wheels by which their better instincts might be supported and flourish. Rather than developing this theme, the humanists came to oppose pre­scriptions, constraints and social institutions almost totally...

300            3. For healthy individuals, said Rogers, «doing what «feels right» proves to be a competent and trustworthy guide to be­havior which is truly satisfying». Which is fine in theory. But what happens when what is «truly satisfying», for you is in conflict with what is satisfying for — or needed by — someone

305  else? Take a mother who is an artist. She finds child care fulfilling, but painting even more so. Maslow and Rogers im­ply that she should attend to her own maximum development and pursue artistic work regardless

310  of whether equally attentive arrangements can be made for her children. They would say that the woman probably would be a bad mother if her per­sonal development were jeopardized... That may well be true in some cases. But should we not at least be open to the pos­sibility that providing for our children's

315  «actualization» at a crucial time in their lives might take priority over our own —  might, in fact, be what we ourselves most deeply want?

4. Or take marriage, where the Maslow-Rogers prescrip­tions similarly is that self-actualization is the primary concern. Rogers believes that «a relationship between a man and a woman is significant,

320  and worth trying to preserve, only when it is an enhancing, growing experience for each person». A couple «can­not hold to (the vows of commitment) unless the marriage is satisfying», Rogers writes. «The value of such outward com­mitment appears to be just about nil». But isn't unconditional commitment — a

325  determination to go the last mile — a part of making the marriage satisfying in the first place? And suppose a partner becomes ill and needs our help so that the union demands more of us than it appears to give back? Time to pack the bags and check out? Are people who act that way the ones we most admire?

330            5. Or take the broader realm of social commitment and concern: An individual finds it self-actualizing to be a lobbyist for commodity speculators or polluters. It's challenging and broadening, and involves lots of free travel and opportunities for professional «contracts». End of question? Don't we need to think

335  about such things as the wise use and fair distribution of the earth's resources, and the availability of socially constructive roles rather than ones that are useless or frivolous? And what about institutions —

340  like governments and marriage — about which Maslow and Rogers have little to say except to lament the way they interfere with our self-actualization. Might not they serve a social function even if sometimes inconvenient?

6. Certainly there are times when we cannot be genuinely useful to others until we attend to our own

345 needs— for instance, the mother who grinds her emptional axes on self-sacrifice and suffocates her children with, attention in the pro­cess. But it is hardly always the case that we serve others best by serving ourselves first....

350    7. Maslow and Rogers were primarily concerned, of course, with the welfare of the individual, not society at large, and for this they felt that freedom and autonomy in development were essential. But they seem to have confused freedom and au­tonomy with a preoccupation with oneself. In fact, we can autonomously aim at goals outside ourselves....

 

VI. ALTRUISM AS THE BASIS OF AN ALTERNATIVE THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING

355            1. It is part of folk wisdom, and of the healing traditions of many cultures, that one path out of our own problems lies in dwelling upon them less... . Respectable opinion today tends to denigrate such views.

360  Yet it's just possible that they are rooted in a psychological truth that today's healers — the clinical psychologists and psychiatrists — tend to overlook. A num­ber of practitioners are convinced that encouraging ever more attention to the self, as psychiatrists and psychologists are do­ing, has become a part of the problem.

365      2. Viktor E. Franki, a psychotherapist, is an example. Interred by the Nazis at Auschwitz and Dachau, Franki found that what kept himself and other inmates going was a sense of purpose outside themselves. Franki helped deter fellow prison­ers from suicide by stressing such commitments. In one case, it was

370  scientific work to be completed; in another, it was the prisoner's child waiting safely elsewhere. What proved helpful was not getting «in touch» with their true feelings, but regain­ing a sense of connection with something larger than them­selves.

375      3. While most in the profession invite patients to dwell upon their problems, Franki believes that patients probably do too much introspecting about their symptoms and feeling states already. His aim is to move patients out of their self-involve­ment... . This therapeutic insight is a central part of Alcoholics

380  Anonymous. Members of A.A. undertake a personal commitment to help fellow alcoholics through participation in weekly meetings, «Twelve Step Calls», and working with new mem­bers for whom they take responsibility.

Helping others stay off the bottle assists them in doing so themselves... .

385            4. Moreover, it is not naive to suggest that we can do more to encourage altruism rather than accept selfishness as the in­escapable core of our nature. It is well demonstrated, for ex­ample, how young people can be influenced by the prevailing values in their families. Studies of the most committed civil rights

390  activists during the sixties found that they were more likely than their cohorts to have parents who had shown just such social commitment during their children's formative years.

We-thinking can be nurtured just like me-thinking can — and if in families, why not in the culture at large?

395            5. Wherever altruism is an essential element of early educa­tion, helping simply becomes part of the way people act. On occasion, a culture such as this can rise to the heights of hero­ism, as when the people of the French Protestant village of Le Chambon risked annihilation by the Nazis during the Second World

400   War in order to shelter Jews. As Protestants in a Catho­lic country, their ancestors had endured centuries of persecu­tion, and almost instinctively the Chambonnais came to the aid of others who suffered this fate.

405 «Things had to be done, that's all, and we happened to be there to do them», was one typically matter-of-fact explanation. That selflessness can come to seem ordinary and mundane is itself a telling point against those who persist in giving sanction to greater indulgence of the self.

6.An old tailor in his eighties once recalled what had given him the most satisfaction in his work: enabling the poor people in his neighborhood to buy well-constructed clothing that would keep them warm. «A coat is not a piece of cloth only», he explained. «The tailor is connected to the one who wears it and he

410  should not forget it». Our colleagues in the psychology profession should not forget it either. They should encourage more thinking about the people who will wear the coat — those affected by our daily thoughts and actions — and less about how we feel while making it, or about the personal re­wards.

 

EXPLAINING REVOLUTIONS IN THE CONTEMPORARY THIRD WORLD

by Jeff Goodwin and Theda Skoopol

(An Edited, Theoretically-Based Academic Article)

In this article, we point to what we consider the most prom­ising avenues for comparative analyses of contemporary Third World revolutions. In particular, we shall oner some working hypotheses about the distinctively political conditions that have encouraged revolutionary movements and transfers of power in

5     some, but not all, Third World countries.

SOME PROBLEMS WITH EXISTING EXPLANATIONS

1.                   Two myths have long colored popular views about revo­lutions in the Third World: that destitution, professional revo­lutionaries, or perhaps both are sufficient to precipitate revo­lutions; and that

10  local events in Third World countries are easily manipulated by imperialist Great Powers. Thus, in at­tempting to explain Third World insurgencies, many people point to the incredible poverty found in large parts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia — the sort of sheer misery that capi­talist industrialization and

15      redistributive welfare states have largely eliminated, contrary to Karl Marx's expectations, in the advanced capitalist countries. Others have emphasized the role that professional revolutionaries, often backed by foreign powers, have played in «subverting» Third World regimes with the «organizational weapon» of the

20      disciplined revolutionary party. Indeed, many see the hand of Moscow (or Beijing, Ha­vana, or Teheran) behind Third World insurgencies, exploiting the social problems of these societies for their own nefarious purposes. Still others see the prime foreign influences on Third World nations as emanating from capitalist

25   powers, especially the United States. When revolutions do not occur in poor na­tions, it is often suggested, it is because the United States has artificially propped up local agents of capitalist imperialism.

2.      These ideas, however, do not take us very far toward an explanation of just why and where

30      revolutions have occurred in some countries of the contemporary Third World, but not in others. Very many Third World countries are poor, for ex­ample, but revolutions have occurred in only a few of them, and not necessarily in the poorest. Why did China and Viet­nam have social revolutions, but not India or

35      Indonesia? Why Cuba, one of the more developed Latin American countries when Castro seized power, but not Haiti or the Dominican Republic? Why Nicaragua, but not Honduras? One need merely raise these questions in order to realize that the «misery breeds revolt» hypothesis does not explain very much. Leon

40      Trotsky once wrote that «the mere existence of privations is not enough to cause an insurrection; if it were, the masses would be always in revolt». His point is still relevant for much of today's Third World.

3.      Similarly, although professional revolutionaries have certainly helped to organize and lead many Third World insur­gencies, revolutionary groups in many, perhaps most, coun­tries remain small and

50      relatively insignificant sects. The Third World may be the principal threater of revolutionary conflict in this century, but much of it remains quiescent. And when political passions have flared in developing countries, they have more often taken the form of ethnic or subnationalist move­ments than revolution. Would-be revolutionaries, Tilly has written, «are almost always with us in the form of millenarian cults, radical cells,

55      or rejects from positions of power. The real question», he emphasizes, «is when such contenders prolifer­ate and/or mobilize». As Goldfrank argues, explanations of revolution that focus on human misery and professional revo­lutionaries «are not wholly illusory, but as theory they do not take us very far. Both

60      widespread oppression and inflammatory agitation occur with far greater frequency than revolution, or even rebellion».

4.      The great capitalist powers, furthermore, obviously can­not prevent — or reverse — all Third World

65      revolutions, as seen in the difficulties confronted by France in Vietnam and Algeria and by United States in Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Iran. Imperialist interests certainly exist, but they must operate through local regimes or through private agents whose activities are underwritten and strongly shaped by the local

70      regimes. And particular types of regimes in the Third World do not always reliably produce the sort of antirevolutionary stabil­ity desired in Paris or Washington, D.C. — any more than local revolutionaries can always produce the changes desired by Moscow, Havana, or Teheran.

75           5. Recent academic analyses of Third World insurgencies have helped to dispel myths such as the ones we have just criticized, yet the academic analyses have not replaced the myths with completely adequate arguments. Much of the re­cent comparative and theoretical literature on Third World revolutions

80      including the important work of Wolf, Paige, Migdal, Scott, and Popkin — investigates the role of peasants in these upheavals. This body of work examines the specific grievances and motivations for peasant rebellion or peasant support for avowedly revolutionary guerilla movements, em­phasizing that much more

85    than poverty or the activities of professional revolutionaries alone is involved. These writings argue that certain sorts of peasants — not usually the poorest — are more willing or able to rebel than others.

6. To be sure, the scholars who have recently analysed Third World revolutions as peasant-based

90      conflicts have their disagreements. At least two important and ongoing debates have come out of this work: the Wolf-Paige debate about just what sort of peasants are revolutionary, and the Scott-Popkin de­bate on the relative weight of economic, organizational, and cultural determinants of peasani behavior, and on the

95      nature of peasant psychological motivations for rebelling. We do not propose to rehash these debates here, however, because we believe that they have overemphasized the situation of the peas­antry alone. Although the debate about peasants and revolu­tion enriched our understanding of agrarian socioeconomic relations

100  and peasant political behavior, these debates have focused insufficient analytic attention on two other issues— themselves closely related — which can take us further toward an understanding of revolutionary

105  movements and transfers of power in the contemporary Third World. The first issue is the formation of revolutionary colalitions that invariably extend well beyond peasants alone. The second issue is the relative

vulnerability of different sorts of political regimes to the for­mation of broad revolutionary coalitions and,

110 perhaps to ac­tual overthrow by revolutionary forces. Drawing from our own recent comparative studies, as well as from political analyses by other scholars, we can explore these matters and suggest a fruitful theoretical approach to explaining why revolutions have happened in some Third World countries but not in others.

FROM PEASANTS TO REVOLUTIONARY COALITIONS

115            7. Although peasants have undoubtedly been as central to most Third World insurgencies as they were for the classical social revolutions, the characterization of Third World revolu­tions as peasant wars or agrarian revolutions a characterization that sometimes carries an implication of homogeneous peasant

120  communities rebelling spontaneously — has shifted our at­tention away from the role of other actors in revolutionary dramas. Revolutionary outbreaks and seizures of power are often carried through by

125  coalitions, alliances, or conjunctures of struggles that cut across divides between urban and rural areas and among different social classes and ethnic groupings. (Of course, such revolutionary coalitions tend to break apart or recompose in new ways if and when they actually seize state power, but this is a subject that lies beyond the scope of this article).

130            8. With some notable exceptions, the literature that empha­sizes the role of peasants in revolutions tends to ignore the role of professional revolutionary organizations, groups that tend to be disproportionately middle class in social composition. This tendency is understandable in partas a reaction against the myth

135  that revolutions are simply the work of small conspirato­rial groups of subversives. But even professional revolutionaries cannot simply make revolutions where they will, they have obviously played an important role in organizing, arming and leading many revolutionary movements. This role, moreover, is often a

140  necessary one. Indeed, except for those peasants who happen to live in relatively autonomous and solitary villages, as did peasants of France, Russia, and central Mexico, rural cul­tivators simply do not have the organizational wherewithal to rebel in the absence of outside leaders. Professional revolutionaries,

145  furthermore, have usually been successful precisely to the extent that they have been able to work with various sorts of rural folk. This is another point that tends to get lost in debates about just what sorts of

150  peasants are most rebellious. The most successful revolutionary organizations — including those in Vietnam, Zimbabwe, and Nicaragua — have won the support not just of poor or middle peasants, but also of land­less and migrant labourers, rural artisans, rich peasants, and even landlords.

155    9. What is more, as Gugler and Dix have recently emphasized, urban groups have also played important, even cru­cial, roles in a number of Third World revolutions. Indeed, the 1978-1979 overthrow of the Shah of Iran was quintessentially an urban revolution. In Cuba and Nicaragua as well as in Iran, students,

160professionals, clerics, and even business people, as well as workers and the urban poor, joined or supported broadbased coalitions against dictatorial regimes. Gugler and Dix suggest that the participation of such people may be essential to the success of revolutionaries in all of the more urbanized coun­tries of the contemporary Third World.

165         10. How can professional revolutionaries put together broadly based coalition? Not surprisingly, revolutionary coalitions tend to form around preexisting nationalist, populist, or religious discourses that legitimize resistance to tyranny and, just as important, are capable of aggregating a broad array of social

170  classes and strata. Nationalism, in particular, has proven to be a more inclusive and powerful force for revolutionary mobiliza­tion than class struggle alone. Revolutionaries have fared best where they — and not conservative or reformist leaderships — have been able to harness nationalist sentiments. Ironically then,

175 Marxist groups in the Third World have generally been most successful when they have deemphasized class struggle and stressed the goal of national liberation instead — or, at least, when they have attempted to mobilize different types of people through the selective use of both nationalist and class appeals.

180            11. Nevertheless, it should be emphasized that revolution­ary movements are much more than simply ideological mo­vements. As Popkin and Wickham-Crowley have recently ar­gued, revolutionary

185  movements have won broad popular sup­port when they have been willing and able to deliver state-like collective goods to their constituents. These may include pub­lic education, health services, law and order, and economic reforms such as tax and interest reductions, the elimination of corvee labor, and land

190  reforms. Popkin notes that revolution­aries have been particularly effective in winning popular support when they have initially focused on «local goals and goods with immediate payoffs» before attempting to mobilize the population for more difficult tasks — including, ultimately, the overthrow of the incumbent

195  regime. In Vietnam, for example, peasants «in the late 1960s still laughed about the early attempts by young Trotskyites and Communists to organize them for a national revolution, for industrialization, or even for a world revolution! Only later, when peasants (and workers) were organized around smaller and more immediate goals, were larger organizational attempts successful». During the 1960’s, a number of Latin

200  American revolutionary groups, which attempted to replicate the Cuban Revolution — including the Sandinistas of Nicaragua — failed to make headway, largely because they were too quick to engage incumbent regimes in armed struggle, well before they had solidified bread popular support through 205

205  the provision of collective goods.

In addition to collective goods, revolutionary organiza­tions may also oner selective incentives to encourage partici­pation in various sorts of activities, particularly dangerous ones like actual guerilla

Figure 1.       210 warfare. Such incentives for actual or potential cadres and fighters, and their families, may include ex­tra tax or rent reductions or an additional increment of land beyond that allocated to supporters in general. In any event, it is the ongoing provision of such collective and selective goods, not ideological conversion in

215 the abstract, that has played the principal role in solidifying social support for guerrilla armies.

13. The argument we have just made does not, however, support Tilly’s claim that the sudden withdrawal of expected government services drives people to revolt. In many Third World countries, few

220 government services have ever been provided to the bulk of the population. In fact, the evidence sug­gests that those governments that do not deliver collective goods in people, and then repress reformers who try to do something about the absence of such services, are the governments most likely to generate support for

225 revolutionaries. This analysis, moreover, accords with what we are beginning to leam about ruling revolutionary parties. Walder has recently shown that such parties obtain popular support or compliance not

230 simply through coercion or through impersonal ideological appeals to atomized individuals (as the «totalitarian» image would have it), but through patronage and the development of networks of loyal clients. Revolutionary movements that have to build social support over a long period of time operate in a similar way. In terms of what they are actually doing (and not simply what they are saying), revolutionary

235 movements can usefully be viewed as proto-state organizations, or what Wickham-Crowley calls «guerilla governments.» The presence of revolu­tionary movements offering collective services in territory claimed by the official state implies a situation of «dual power», in Trotsky'’ classic phrase.

240            14. Revolutionaries are most effective in creating such situ­ations of dual power when they are willing and able to organize precisely those social groupings that the incumbent regime has not incorporated into its own political system. Moreover, the breadth of revolutionary coalitions is determined, not just by how

245  many groups the revolutionary cadres try organize, but also by the political space the incumbent political regime makes available to revolutionaries because of the regime’s structural characteristics and strategies of

250  rule. Other things being equal, the narrower the regime and the more repressive, the broader the coalition potentially available to be mobilized by revolu­tionaries.

15.     This brings us to the second issue largely neglected in recent work on peasants and revolutions,

255  namely, the relative vulnerability of different sorts of political regimes to revolutionary-coalitions. Revolutionary movements, needless to say, do not form in a political vacuum. Indeed, political context is absolutely crucial in determining whether such movements will or not prosper. Recent work on Third

260  World revolutions has not convincingly demonstrated that any one class, class fraction, or class alliance is any more consistently revolutionary than the industrial proletariat was supposed to have been. Ex­actly who becomes revolutionary, and when, is a pre-eminently political question. Revolutions are ultimately «made»

265  by revo­lutionaries, but not of their own free will — not within political contexts they themselves have chosen, to paraphrase Karl Marx, but within very specific sorts of political contexts that are not the same for all who would make revolutions.

WHICH REGIMES ARE VULNERABLE TO THE GROWTH OF REVOLUTIONARY COALITIONS?

16.     Revolutionary movements, history suggests, typically coalesce in opposition to closed or

270  exclusionary, as well as organizationally weak (or suddenly weakened), authoritarian regimes. By contrast, multiparty democracies or quasi-democracies, even those in very poor countries like India, Malaysia, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras, have not facilitated the growth of revolutionary coalitions. The ballot

275  box has proven to be the coffin of revolutionary movements. Thus far, in fact, avowedly socialist revolutions which according to classical Marxism were supposed to follow after and build upon the achievements of bourgeois-democratic revolutions — have occured only in countries that never established

280  liberal-democratic political systems in the first place.

17.     In addition to liberal democracies, so-called «inc-lusionary» authoritarian regimes — including fascist and state socialist regimes, as well as single-party corporatist regimes found in some nations of

285   Africa and Asia — have so far been immune from revolutionary transformations. Although these regimes lack civil rights, they either sponsor mass political mo­bilization or regulate the official representation of, and bar­gaining among, various social groups, including working-class and other lower-strata groups. They

290  impose controlled forms of political participation on key social groups, coopting leaders and handing out certain benefits in the process; this tends to undercut possibilities for political action independent of the existing regime.

18.     Many authoritarian regimes do not, however, bother to mobilize social groups into politics, even in controlled ways; they leave the prerogatives of the state and benefits of politics entirely in the hands of rulers and narrow cliques. Such exclu­sionary authoritarian regimes are conducive to the formation of broad

300  revolutionary coalitions for a number of related reasons. The first of these reasons is that the economic grievances groups excluded from the political system tend to be quickly politicized. Another reason is that closed authoritarian regimes provide a highly visible focus of opposition and a common enemy for groups

305  and classes that may be nursing very different sorts of economic and political grievances (including grievances about one another). Political legitimacy is usually very problematic for authoritarian rulers, especially when religious authorities distance themselves from, or even outright oppose, such regimes,

310  after having previously accepted them. Similarly, the political legitimacy of authoritarian rulers has sometimes been undermined simultaneously in the eyes of many groups when the rulers have orchestrated blatantly fraudulent elec­tions in an effort to justify their continuing power.

315       19. Most importantly, perhaps, exclusionary regimes tend to radicalize, or at least neutralize, moderate and reformist politicians, including those choose to participate in proforma elections. Such moderates might compete with revolutionaries for popular support, or else initiate a gradual transition to a more open

320 or inclusionary political system, typically through  alliances with the armed forces. But exclusionary regimes tend to attack and undermine exactly these moderate elements.

19.     Finally, closed authoritarian regimes, without intending to do so, valorize the potential oppositional role of armed revo­lutionaries. Because such regimes are closed, they readily turn to vicious repression

325  when faced with demands for even the most moderate political or economic adjustments. Thus closed authoritarian regimes place a premium on the things armed revolutionaries are best prepared to do

330  namely, provide op­ponents of a regime with the means of self-defense, such as guns, clandestine networks, safehouses, and even liberated ter­ritory within which to survive and carry on oppositional poli­tics. On the other hand, authoritarian regimes that are militar­ily and organizationally strong and have secure borders

335  gener­ally do not provide sufficient leeway for armed revolutionaries to mobilize mass support, even though they too tend to radicalize their opponents. Like it or not, then, some of the most brutal and repugnant authoritarian regimes in the Third World, such as those found in Latin America'’ southern cone, in various

340  East Asian and Middle Eastern countries, and especially in South Africa, are probably too powerful and ruthless to be toppled by armed struggle.

20.     From the viewpoint of would-be revolutionaries, the ideal situation is to face an exclusionary and

345  repressive au­thoritarian regime that lacks strong control of its entire territory or borders (or else suddenly loses such control). During World War II, parts of Nazi-occupied Europe fit this formula. More to the point for this analysis of the contemporary Third World, quite a few states in Southeast Asia, Central America,

350  and Africa fall into this category: they are simultaneously, politically exclusionary repressive, and not fully in control of their nominal territories. Facing such regimes, revolutionaries can build broad coalitions among many groups fundamentally op­posed to the existing political arrangements and authorities, because

355  many groups in society need the coercive means and uncompromising political formulas that the revolutionary cad­res have to offer.

Figure 1. A graphic representation of states according to degrees of(l) penetration of national territory, (2) incorpora­tion of socially mobilized groups, and (3) bureaucratization of the state administration and armed forses.


CONCLUSION

22. Our analysis (summarized in Fig. 1) suggests that revo­lutionaries in the contemporary Third World

360  are most likely to succeed when civil society as a whole can be politi-cally mobilized to oppose an autonomous and narrowly based direct co­lonial regime or a Sultanistic neo-patrimonial regime In her recent comparative study of the Iranian and Nicaraguan revo­lutions, Farhi suggests that the «most

365  important characteristic of the Iranian and Nicaraguan pre-revolutionary states was their almost total autonomy from internal classes» This has been characteristic, in fact, of virtually all Third World states that have been toppled by revolutions. In contrast, when radi­cals confront a state with significant social connections — even if the state is authoritarian and its ties are restricted to the middle and upper classes —

370  then revolutionary coalition building becomes very difficult. Furthermore, if a state tradi­tionally allied with economic elites can politically incorporate at least some popular sectors or organizations, then the pros­pects for revolutionary success become still more remote.

375            23. It follows from what we have argued that the Third World has been the principal site of social revolutions in this century, not simply because of the poverty or socioeconomic structures one finds there. The Third World is also where one finds most of the world's exclusionary and repressive political

380  systems, based in administrative organizations and armies that do not fully penetrate civil society or control the territories they claim to rule.

24. Our analysis of the conditions conducive to the forma­tion of revolutionary coalitions and actual

385  transfers of power in the Third World has shifted away from the emphases on the peasantry and the effects of commercial capitalism that char­acterized earlier comparative approaches. Instead, we have sug­gested that the structures of states, as well as the political rela­tions between states and various sectors of society,

390  provide the keys to explaining revolutions in the Third World. Revolution­ary uoalitions have formed and expanded in countries in which one finds not only poverty, imperialism, professional revolu­tionaries, and peasants of a certain sort, but also political ex­clusion and severe and indiscriminate (while not

395  overwhelming) repression.

     25. Revolutionary movements will undoubtedly continue to emerge in the Third World, where many states are not only exclusionary, but also fiscally, administratively, and militarily weak. And if the past is

400  any guide, such movements will be  especially likely to triumph where the political regimes they oppose remain narrow as well as repressive.

From: Politics and Society, vol. 17, No. 4, Dec. 1989.

 

PART V

EXERCISES on Texts in Parts III and IV

 

ANNUAL REPORT ON SPACESHIP EARTH

 

Exercise:

1 .This text was written as if it were a ___________

2.You/ we/I/ refer to: ___________________

3.Тhе writer uses an analogy between planet earth and a spaceship. List some of the features characteristic of both the earth and a spaceship.

4.What aspects of the earth's life support system are men­tioned in the text?

5.A. Compare the life situations of those who represent 5% and those who represent 75% of the world's population. Con­sider the following:

a. quality of the living quarters each group inhabits:____

b. percentage of available resources that each group con­sumes:

c. percentage of each group suffering from lack of: (a) food _____ (b) water ____.

d. relative impact of each member of each group on the lifesupport system:

B. In what sense are the tourist and first-class sections «over-populated» (1.28)?

6.In the author's report to the passengers on earth, what overriding concerns does he have?

7.Is the author optimistic or pessimistic about the outcome of the interlocking crisis (11.44)?_______________

(Support your answer by reference to the text. (Quote first and last word of relevant passage/s and give line numbers.)

8. Below is a list of markers of information in the text.

Indicate what kind of information is signified.

a. 1.1: «As you know...»

b. 1.7: «Let me briefly summarize. . . »: (Where does this brief summary end?)

c. 1.13: «In fact ...»

d. 1.24: «However...»

e. 1.25: «There is a second type...» Review paras. 4, 5, and 6 for additional markers of information and indicate the kind of information signified.

 

CHIMPS EAT CHIMPS,

Dvora Ben Shaul

l.What kind of a text is this? Essay? Book Review? How far do you have to read into the text to find out? What words or phrases helped you decide?

2.According to Ben Shaul, why is Jane Goodall «to be highly complimented» (line: II)?

3.At what audience is this book directed? (i) laymen; (ii) professionals (in what?)______; (iii) both On what words or phrases in the text did you base this answer? Lines:_______________________

Words:________________________

4. List some of the special features of this book which Ben Shaul brings to our attention.

5.(INFERENCE) List two beliefs about chimp behavior that were generally held before this book was published and have now been toppled. People previously thought that:

(a.)____________________________

and that (b.)_

6. Goodall also makes some observations about chimps based on sources other than her own observations.

(a.) List the sources:

(b.) State the observations

7.What are Goodall's qualifications for writing this book?

8.Is there any evaluation of this book either spread throughout the text or at the end? If so, indicate lines and words or phrases. Does Ben Shaul evaluate Goodall's book positively or nega­tively?

9. List the vocabulary words you had difficulty with in read­ing this text. Place a «*» before the words you feel you abso­lutely must know in order to understand this reading.

 

SIGNS IN THE WILDERNESS

by Eugene Linden

Para. 1 (rearranging facts in chronological order)

1. Lucy was bom in ________ (year).

2. When the article was written, Lucy was ________

yrs. old.

3. If she survives for the normal lifespan of a chimp, she will, die in ________ at me age of_______.

4. She lived in Oklahoma from ______ until _____

(between the ages of_______ and________ ).

5. She first met another chimp in _____, at the age of

6. She became famous in ___________ when she

was_________.

7. She was taken to the wilderness in________, at the age of

8. When the article was written she had been living in the wilderness for_________ years .

Final paragraph (implications)

1. Describe the ethos of our time. (What does the writer tell us about it, by implication?)

2. Language is something ______,(whereas we normally think of it as _______ ).

3. We use language as a way of distinguishing between our­selves and_______; (the proper function of language is_______).

4. «Being a chimp» or «being human» is not a condition determined by_________(as we normally think it is) but rather,____ (and this fact is_______)

5. Human beings have the power arbitrarily to___.(Should we have this power?______________)

6. The relationship between the human species and the rest oftheanimals is________________________)

This relationship should be______________.)

7. We played a role in determining Lucy's fate that is prop­erly the role of_______________________.)

 

MIGHTIER THAN THE PEN

Exercise

1. In para.2, the sentence beginning «I swiftly replaced...» (1.13) lists a series of related activities. The immediately preceding sentence refers to all of these activities in a single, all-inclusive phrase. What is this phrase?

2. In para.3 (11. 22-24) the sentence «To the more.. .matter» refers us back to a previous sentence earlier in the text.

The sentence it refers us back to is at the end of the first paragraph, where the writer tells us how he originally felt about using a word processor.

What phrase occurs in both sentences, calling our attention to the change in his attitude?

3. What «more critical question» is being referred to in line 24?

4. Para.5 is an elaboration of the answer to what question?

5. Para.6 is an elaboration of the answer to what question?

6. The last sentence in para.5 and the first sentence in para.6 set up an opposition between two aspects of writing. What are these two aspects?

7. Para.7 is a comic dramatization of the act of______

8 Why might you prefer not to end one sentence and start a new one once «you're really well launched into the thing» (1.60)?

9. The writer's attitudes toward the Wordprocessor shift from paragraph to paragraph. For each of the paragraphs listed be­low, decide whether his attitude is :-

a. positive        b. negative с. «noncommital» (1.29)

Para.l____________  para. 6_____________

Para.2____________ para. 7_____________

Para.3____________ para. 8_____________

Para.4 ___________  para 9______________

Para.5____________

10. Explain the relationship between the subtitle of the ar­ticle and the shifts in the writer's attitude recorded in your answer to question 9.

11. Writing that is «redundant» is characterized by the use of more words than necessary to express the idea/s communi­cated. Examples in this text are:

a. «lines of words» (1.13)

b. «processing process» (1.51)

(1) Which words seem unnecessary in each of the above phrases?

a.                                           b.

(2) What special effect, or extra meaning, is conveyed by the use of redundancy in each of the above: (a) and (b)?

CRIME AND POVERTY

Exercise

1. «Different eras will sometimes have differing facets of the same explanation to explain away the evil in men's hearts.»(11.4-5) In paras. 1 and 2 Koch gives us two «facets of the same explanation (11.4-5)»for the evil that men do. At first, these «facets» seem like two different types of explanations. 1) In­structions: Fill in the chart below, providing the appropriate explanations in each of the blank spaces.

                                

                                   Type A                  Type B

                            ( psychological)    ( Socio-Economic )

17th centry

 

 

 

 

 

end of 18th centry

 

 

 

 

 

19th centry

 

 

 

 

 

20th centry

 

 

 

 

 

2. What do explanations A and B have in common? (Where does Koch give the answer to this questions)?

3. Who is the «average person» (11.30, 119)? What does he believe?

4. Who are the «elitists» (1.33)? What do they believe?

5. With whom does Koch assume that his reader identifies (i.e., with the average person or with the elitists)? Where and how does he suggest this? (Cite relevant passages, giving line numbers).

6. With whom does Koch imply that he identifies? Where and how does he imply this identification? (Cite passages, giv­ing line numbers).

7. Consider the various sources of the evidence Koch uses to support his view. Would you say he used a representative sample of all the research done in this area? (Or was his sample biased)?

1) Later Koch tells what they have in common.

 

BANALITY AND TERROR

Exercise

1. Explain briefly the comparison or parallel between what is discussed in para.l and para.2.

2. The bombing of the Brighton Hotel and the Air India Hight are best described as examples of...

3. According to Jenkins, what factor has contributed to the escalation of terror?

4. «Even more alarming» (1.28) ; even more alarming than what?

5. How can the «sheer frequency of terrorist attacks be­come selfdefeating»? (11.47-48)

6. What is the difference between «describing» and «pre­scribing» as used in 1.54-55?

7. The Naples-Milan express train incident is an example used by the author to illustrate...

8. What is the one possible consolation Jenkins finds? Is it a fact or an opinion?

9. Is Jenkins pessimistic or optimistic about finding a solu­tion to the problem of terrorism? Support your answer from the text .

Lines:___ Quote first and last words:__________

10.What is the prediction for the immediate future as re­gards the public reaction to terrorism?

11.According to the writer, what is the relationship between «banality» and «terror»?

 

Vocabulary: A. Find 4 to 6 terms in the text which mean the elimination or complete destruction of someone or some­thing. Word:_____ Line:______ Word:____ Line:____

B. Which word in the text means

daily______ yearly______ every 10 years____?

C. What is the meaning of oversee (1.15)_________?

What is an oversight ___________________?

*Caution: do not confuse the two

D. Find a synonym for each of the following words.

precedent __________ deter____________

commonplace________ respite___________

epidemic ___________ reprisals___________

resist_____________ combat___________

controversy_______________

 

E.Fill in each blank with one of the words in (D) above.

1 There are at least two points of view in every _______.

2.The way to_______terrorism has not yet been found.

3.There has been no _______ for this in all of history.

4.The ________ is spreading rapidly in every country.

5.Terrorism has become so______ that we can no longer resist it

6.Even_____ do not give us a long_________from terrorist attacks.

 

THE TASK OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY

Exercise

1. What do the inventions of agriculture and weapons have in common with machine production?

2. «In the old days, mountains and waterfalls were natural phenomena; now, an inconvenient mountain can be abolished and a convenient waterfall can be created.» (11.9-11). What point is Russell trying to prove?

3. «Now» (11.10,12,20): Is the writer referring to a specific year? (What does «now» mean here?)

4. What is the difference in the effects of education in the machine age as compared with pre-machine times?

5. The writer has some reason to believe that «the mentality of agriculturalists» (1.21-22) has been transformed in one gen­eration in Russia. Circle TRUE or FALSE.) Justify your an­swer by quoting from the text.

6. What is the result, as regards man's outlook on life, of his new sense of power?

7. Name two elements which rulers nowadays regard as raw material upon which power can be exercised.

    8.«It has already produced ...» (1.37-38).

     What does «it» refer to?__________________

9. What is the grammatical subject of the verb «is» in line 41?

10.What, according to Russell, is the most urgent task of our time?

 

LEARNING THE HARD WAY

1. Read the sub-title — What does it tell us about the author's purpose in writing the article?

2. A. What are the various terms, that the (D) in (LD) is said to stand for?

B. Which of these terms (according to the writer) does not cause the child who is so labeled to be «stigmatized» (1.44)?

С. Why doesn't the writer care about the fact that the terms «dyslexia» and «learning disability» are often used interchange­ably (11. 76, 77)? (Cite a phrase from the same paragraph in answering this question.)

3. What does some of the current neurological research suggest about the reasons for LD problems?

4. What are some of the common traits exhibited by chil­dren with LD problems?

5. Why should the problems of an LD child increase dra­matically after he starts going to school?

6. What other problems are likely to result if children with LD problems are not recognized, acknowledged and given ap­propriate help?

7. Does the writer actually tell us «how to help children triumph over learning disabilities»? What advice does he give? To which groups of people is this advice directed?

8. A. «discern» (1.192) means_______________________

B. What «area of meaning» do these words all belong to?

a. to discern

b. to distinguish (1.166)

с. to discriminate between

C. Use each of the three words in a sentence of your own.

 

MAN OF WISDOM

by Robert Jastrow

1 The use of many questions in the course of this text is a rhetorical device by means of which the writer achieves a cer­tain effect.

A. What effect does he achieve with this device?

B. Make a list of the questions in the text. (Give first and last words and line numbers). Next to each question, specify whether it fits any or several of the following descriptions:

a. A question designed to make the reader himself come up with the answer, based on his own prior knowledge of the subject.

b. A question designed to prepare the reader for the ans­wer (which the author is about to supply immediately).

c. A question designed to prepare the reader for the answer which the author will eventually supply (later in the text).

d. A question for which neither the reader nor the writer could possibly be expected to provide the answer. (If you find a question of this type, state what you think the writer's pur­pose in asking it might have been).

2. List the various factors involved in the answer to the ques­tion: «What pressures generated the explosive growth of the human brain?» (11. 10-11) (Give line numbers for the relevant passages.)

3.Which «law» accounts for the evolution of human intelli­gence, according to this text?

4.What is the relationship between the «law» (see your an­swer to question [3]) and the factors listed in your answer to question (2)?

5.A colloquial equivalent of the scientific phrase «the evo­lution of human intelligence», which is used elsewhere in this text, is________________.

6.The writer's purpose is primarily to__________the

reader.

a.       convince

b.      inform

JAPANESE EDUCATION

by Thomas P. Rohlen

I. Read paragraphs 1-3, which constitute an introduction to the article. What information do you learn about Japanese so­ciety that is relevant to education?

II. Read paragraph 20 which is a summary and chart the advantages and disadvantages of Japanese education.

advantages

a.

disadvantages

 

b.

 

 

 

c.

 

 

 

d.

 

 

 

e.

 

 

 

III. Divide paragraphs 4-19 into two sections. Assign the following sub-titles to these sections :

A. Explanation For The High Level Of Accomplishment Of Students In The Japanese School System (Paras. 4-6)

B. The Relationship Between The School System and The Class System of Adult Society (Paras. 9-19)

IV. Answer the following questions about the text. Always indicate the line numbers in which you found your answers.

1. In Japan today a good education is necessary for :

a.________ b._________ c._________ .

2 . The Japanese economy needs so many highly skilled people because________________________.

3. Paragraph 2 deals with_________________ .

4.A. «These accomplishments» (lines 37) refer to______

B. What are some of the signs of the superiority of the Japanese system which the author mentions?

5. The table in paragraph 3 indicates that__________

6. What five explanations does the writer offer (in paras. 4-6) for the high level of Japanese education?

i. _______________

ii. _______________

iii._______________

iv. ______________

v. ______________

7. «Acknowledging this» (1.58) What is the writer willing to acknowledge?

8. «Despite such problems» (line 101) What problems?

9. What information does paragraph 10 provide about ex­ams:

a. types of questions — ___________________

b. content of exams — __________________

c. kinds of skills tested — __________________

d. necessary attributes for students — ___________

10. What does each of the following words (markers) signify?

a. «in sum» (1.145) _____________________

b. «but» (1.139;!. 147)____________________

c. «furthermore» (1. 148)__________________

11. What is a «juku»?____________________

a. How do juku differ from the official Japanese public schools and why are they necessary?

b. Explain in your own words lines 166-175.

12. How does the author answer the question asked at the beginning of para. 12?

13. Give 2 examples of figurative language found in para. 14 and explain them.

a.

b.

14. In his own research, what changes has the author noted regarding the relationship between the student's family back­ground and the academic rank of the school he attends?

15. According to Para 17, what do the American and Japa­nese school systems have in common?

16. Circle true or false and justify your answer by quoting from the text. «Japanese males are given preferential treatment with regard to university entrance requirements».

Lines:______»____________________»

17. Do you think Rohlen would advise us to adopt the Japanese education system? Yes/No, Justify your answer by quoting from the text (first word _________; last word

_____; line numbers________ ).

IV. Vocabulary:

achievement accomplishment

diligence

delinquency

consideration

ordeal

 

capacity

entrepreneurship

correlate

idiosyncratic

pre-occupation

calibration

 

excessive

disenfranchised

 

meritocracy

correlate

 

interpretive

 

 

 

GREEN BRIEFS AND TOXIC TORTS

EDUCATING LAWYERS WITH ENVIRONMENTAL SAVVY

Exercises:

1. Read the sub-heading and single out the social problems which might be discussed in the article.

2. Para. 2. mentions that the students' interest in environ­mental law has been increased since 1988. Prove it.

3. What is important to consider from the author's point of view (para. 3)?

4. «In the late 1980s, law schools again responded to an extraodinary new burst of student interest in environmental law» (para. 4, 60-61). Give examples of the growth of environ­mental courses and increased employment opportunities after graduating from such schools:

A.

B.

5. Skimming. Skim «Changes in Teaching» and report on them.

6. «Teaching environmental law» enormously challenging (II, 1, 146, 147), «The field» has now reached matu­rity», «is thriving» (II, 1, 148-160), «to tackle new and more complex regulatory statutes» (II, 1, 165, 166), «to revel in the challenge of teaching such a difficult course (II, 3, 177, 178), «environmental law has begun to matter in other fields» (II, 4, 192, 193), «cross-cutting themes» (II, 5, 207), «a diverse statu­tory jumble» (II, 5, 208).

Explain these phrases.

7. Para. II.7 (239, 240) points out «reasons for renewed optimizm». Cite them:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

8. Some professors «express the sense of mission» (II,9,273). A. Why do they do so? B. How do they explain it?

9. The author has some reasons for believing that not every­one, however, is convinced that increased specialization in the law school curriculum is desirable» (III,2,298, 299). Circle true or false. Justify your answer by quoting from the text.

10. Para. III gives different points of view on specialized programs in environmental law, health law, etc. Name some of them. Express your attitude.

11. Para. IV. lines 388, 389. «Some efforts are underway to increase the exposure of environmental law students to other disciplines». Prove a) the importance of science, economics and others for these students; b) the benefits of coteaching; c) and receiving joint degrees.

12. Para. V. lines 447-457. With the view to preparing the students for the subject matter of environmental law a few schools are beginning__________________ while

in other schools faculties and professors are recomending__________ or _____________.

13. What are the two benefits the contemporary law stu­dents gained from the public environmental concerns:

А.

В.

THE GENESIS OF THE MODERN TOY

PART I: FIRST PARAGRAPH

1. Vocabulary in Context

    WORD               PART OF SPEECH     PROBABLE MEANING,

                                   (Noun, Veib                     IN CONTEXT

                              Adjective or Adverb)

a. commonplace (1)                    a.                    a.

b. artifacts (2)                             b.                    b.

c. material culture (3)                 с.                    с.

d. embryonic (4)                         d.                    d.

e. bulk (11)                                 e.                    e.

f. ranked (12)                              f.                     f.

g. differentiated (13)                  g.                    g.

h. not invariably (15)                  h.                    h.

i. mirror (17)                               i.                     i.

j. conversely (18)                       j.                     j.

k. prevailing (19)                        k.                    k.

1. ambiguous (23)                     1.                    1.

m. revealing (23)                       m.                    m.

2. Two products of «material culture» mentioned in para.l are:_________ and_________. Two products of

«high culture» mentioned are______and_________.

3. The general term used by the writer to include the prod­ucts of

both types of culture is__________________.

4. The connecting word «yet» (1.8) is a marker of «conces­sion.» The writer concedes (admits) that some piece of infor­mation he gives us is surprising in the light of some other piece of information that he gives us; and he insists that, neverthe­less, both are true.

A. What fact is surprising but nevertheless true? It is sur­prising but true that __________________.

B. This fact is surprising if we consider that

5. «Toys are equally revealing» (1. 14) means that they are just as revealing as something else.

A.    What is that «something else» that is also revealing?

B.     B. What do both things reveal?

6. The parenthetical phrase «(often though not invariably parents)» (1. 15, 16) conveys the somewhat surprising impli­cation that the choice of a particular toy for a particular child may be determined by __________, and not necessar­ily by _____________.

7. «conversely» (1. 18) is a connecting word indicating that you can turn something about or reverse the order of some­thing in the preceding statement or proposition and get an­other proposition that is also true.

A. The initial proposition here tells us that we can learn about _________ by looking at___________.

B. The second proposition (following «conversely») tells us that_____________________________

PART II: PARAGRAPHS 3, 4, and 5

l.In Para. 3, two reasons are suggested for the attitude of parents towards their children in 16th and 17th century En­gland and America.

What are these two reasons?

2.The main topic of Para.4 is:

a. The gradual emancipation of the child.

b. The harshness of 17th century childhood.

с. The history of child care in the U.S., England and Eu­rope.

d. Infant mortality rates in the 17th century.

3.From para.5 we learn that the harsh picture of 17th cen­tury childhood demonstrated parental indifference.

true                                                                    false

Underline the correct answer and justify it by quoting from the text: first word______; last word______; line

nos____.

4.There is a connection between the fact that — between the late 17th and early 19th century — Angle-Saxon culture developed «a new conception of man» (1.110), and the new emphasis on pleasurable teaching techniques (including the use of play «didactically» [1.133].

A. What was new about this «new» conception of man? (How did it differ from the earlier one?)

B. Why did pleasurable teaching techniques seem more suit­able than painful ones (such as corporal punishment) to the new conception of man?

5. «Man came to be seen as a malleable and manipulative creature» (II. 111, 112).

A. What do the underlined words mean?

B. What used to describe a way of seeing other human beings, what sort of connotation (positive or negative) do they have today?

C. What sort of connotation do you imagine they had for Locke and his followers?

 

PART III: PARAGRAPHS 10 and 11

1. «remarkably circumscribed» (II.168) has a (positive) (ne­gative) connotation. Underline the correct answer and justify it.

2. «Nevertheless (1.167) is a connecting word that indicates (like the word «yet» — see question 4 above) something sur­prising about one of the propositions that it connects: some­thing surprising in the light of the other proposition.

A.    In this context, which proposition is surprising?

B.     Why might it surprise us?

3. What is the implied attitude of the writer with respect to the «transformation» (1.173) of the middle class woman? Jus­tify your answer by citing some part/parts of the text.

4. A. Some form of the word «control» appears three times in these last two paragraphs (II.169,184-186) It has a (positive) (negative) connotation. Underline the correct answer and jus­tify it.

B. How is his use of «control» here similar to his earlier use of «manipulative» and «manipulation» (II.112, 125)

5. A. Does the writer object to using play as «a means of teaching individuals social and moral principles? (II.190)? (Yes) (No). Underline the correct answer and justify it.

B. Does the writer believe play should be used exclusively as a means to an end, rather than as an end in itself? (Yes) (No) . Underline the correct answer and justify it.

6. A. «means» (1.192) here is the equivalent of what other word in the same sentence________________.

B. By italicizing the word «means» (1.192) the writer em­phasizes the fact that______________________.

 

7. What is ironic about the fact that «play... was looked on as an individualistic endeavour even when it involved other children» (11.193-195).

 

HUMANISTIC MEDICINE

IN A MODERN AGE

(Exercise A)

Outline and summarize by using this chart:

l.The crisis is _____________ __

3.The author's explanation of the crisis:

4.The author's solution to the crisis:

 

 

 

HUMANISTIC MEDICINE

(Exercise B)

Exercise:

1.The articles, books and institutes mentioned in line 11 are striking proof of_______________________

2.Explain why the writer thinks the phrase «humanistic medicine» «logically should be redundant». (1.13)

3. There are 2 contrasting points of view mentioned in para.2. what are they?

(a)___________________ (b)____________________

4. What kinds of «defects» (1.33) is the writer referring to?

5. In the 5th para. («The view that..(1.40) the writer suggests that people who do not have an open mind might deny the association between humanism and___________(one word).

6. He mentions the CT scan (11. 56) to prove his thesis that

7. According to the writer, what role should the humanities have in the physician's education?

8. «A paradox indeed»(1, 118)! What paradox does he have in mind?

9. «Such a goal»(II.133) What goal is he referring to?

10. According to the writer, medical training can some­times have a bad effect on the development of a student's character. True False (circle your answer and justify it).

11. «... have failed miserably in these goals» (11.143, 144) 427

(a) Which goals is he referring to here?

(b) Which 2 types of societies have made the attempt to achieve these goals?

(1)______________(2)______________.

12. In para.11 (II.145-154) he places the blame for the crisis in the present state of medicine on_______________.

13A. «the solution is relatively easy» (1.177, 178). What is the solution?

B. What does the writer believe is often wrong with formal­ist religious training? (para. 13)

14. How is «alienation»(1.188) related to the crisis of mod­em medicine?

 

HANDS: A CASE STUDY

WHAT METHODOLOGY DOES SACKS USE TO ARRIVE AT CONCLUSIONS?

Complete the following statements by listing the informa­tion called for:

1. He made the following observations concerning Madelaine's history and her physical and mental condition:________________________________________

2. He formulated the following hypothesis concerning the «uselessness» of Madeleine's hands and the possibility of making them usable: ______________________

3. He sought support for his hypothesis by considering the following case studies previously reported on by other scien­tists, along with the conclusions these scientists reached:____________________________

4. He observed the following significant difference between Madeleine and the patients in the other case studies:_____________________________

5. In devising a plan to help Madeleine gain the use of her hands , he first conceived of an analogy between Madeleine

6. His method of helping Madeleine gain the use of her hands was the following_____________________

7. The following were the steps in Madeleine's progress toward gaining the use other hands:______________

8. He arrived at the following conclusions concerning the «basic power of perception» based on Madeleine's experi­ence :______________________________

9. Some of the implications suggested to him by this case study were:__________________________

 

ECOLOGICAL ARMAGEDDON

                by Robert Heilbroner

                From the Abstract preceding the text:

From the abstract preceding the text, we can understand that the text will deal with________________from

the point of view of_________________such

as______________________________.

1. Divide the article into three (3) main sections, beginning with paragraph (1).

Provide each section with a sub-title, and give paragraph numbers for each section.

Section Sub-title                Paragraph numbers

1.                                      1.

2.                                      2.

3.                                      3.

2. The first sentence of para. 5 refers to «three distinct de­velopments».

a.The first of these developments is discussed in li­nes___to ___.

b.The second is discussed in lines___to_

c. The third is discussed in lines___to_

3. In the first sentence Para.6 Heilbroner promises to «re­turn to the population problem later.» Where does he do this? (Give paragraph numbers):

 

4. The first sentence of para.5 refers to «iffy» scenarios.

a. What «scenarios» does the writer have in mind?

b. Why are they «iffy»?

5. In the first sentence of para. 10 Heilbroner promises to «revert later to the consequences of this prospect.» Where does he do this? (Give paragraph numbers):

6. «nuclear radiation» (1.120), «pesticides» (1.132) and «ferti­lizers» (1.149) are given as examples of___________________________

7. In para. 12 Heilbroner is reminded of a cartoon (11. 159-163) that stresses man's reaction to the threat to our survival. What does the cartoon suggest about that reaction?______________________________________

(not more than 5 words)

8. a. What was the Malthusian prophecy?________________________________________

                                                                              (not more than 12 words)

b. Mention two ways in which the Eriichs have «corrected» Malthus :

i .

ii.

9. To what extent does Heilbroner accept the Eriich's views as presented in the first 17 paragraphs? Support your answer by quoting a sentence from the text. Lines:_______Quote relevant words»:________________________.

10.Of the problems facing the planet earth, Heilbroner con­siders the ___________ one the most serious threat to people.

11.A. In para.21 the cult of disposability is contrasted with the cult of___________________________.

B. Explain what each of these terms means.

12.Para.24 begins with the question: «Is the Millian or the Marxian view correct»?

a. Which of the two views predicts the eventual transforma­tion of capitalism into an ideal economy? (Give line numbers and first and last word of the passage in which the answer may be found): lines __to__:first word:____last word:____

b. Why is the idea of a «stationary» capitalism, from a Marxian viewpoint, a contradiction in terms»? (II. 278), (Give line numbers and first and last word of the passage in which the answer may be found) :lines:____to____:  first word:______last word:____

c. Does Heilbroner tell us there might possibly be some hope that the capitalist class would agree to «the elimination of the very activities that sustain it»? (II.302, 303). 1. Circle. Yes or No 2. Give line number and first and last word of the pas­sage in which the answer can be found. Lines___to__.

13. Heilbroner uses an analogy which he develops throughout this text (see especially para. 17). In the analogy he compares ______________ to_______________.

 

WATER, WAR AND PEACE

IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Exercises:

1. «What disputes» go hand in hand «with water — related tensions? (1,8-9)

a)_____________, b)______________,

c)_____________.

2. Explain and find synonyms for «go hand in hand»(l,8 ) _______________,«to come under pressure»(l 1)

(1,18)_____________, «explicit discussion»(2,22)

________________, «to fight over»( 1,12, 13)

3. Skimming. Skim Box l"Water and the Middle East Peace Talks» and 1) find out a)what kind of talks are held between different countries________________________

b) What are their official aims________________

2)Name a) five separate working groups:

____________________________________________________________________________

 

b) four sets of multilateral water negotiations:

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

c) separate independent, unofficial discussions

_____________________________________________________________________________

4) Scanning. Scan Box 2 «Conflict over water in the myths, legends and ancient history of the Middle East» and say what are the most intriguing legends or myths from your point of view, when they took place and why you are interested in them.

5) Para.6. is about «the most pressing water conflicts in the Middle East». Where are they centered?

 

The Water Resources (II).

6. What are the major shared surface water supplies in the Middle East (II,2) and how do problems of water quality affect the region(II,4,95)

Climate Changes (III).

7. Lines 109-124 (III,1) mention that «climate change could either increase or decrease overall water availability» and «... even slight decreases in long term water availability would place severe political strains on the region». Prove these statements.

Reducing Conflicts over Water (IV).

8. Give a definition of «equitable utilization»(IV,l,151) Where in the worlds is there a similar water situation?

New Supplies(V).

9.List different ways of increasing water supplies:

______________________________________________________________________

 

10. Skim the passage and point out all the pros and cons of each new source of supply from the authors point of view.

Politics and International Law(VI)

11. Para. VI,( 1,270-274) different factors affecting the suc­cessful negotiations «are included».Name them:

a.

b.

c.

d.

What were the previous attempts (para. VI,3)? What can reduce the risk of conflicts over water (para VI,4,325, 326)?

Toward Peace and Cooperation (VII)

12. On Para. VII,2 four «enormous differences» among the parties are suggested concerning access to water.

What are these differences?

1.

2.

3.

4.

13. «Some of the goals...» (VII, 3, 376). What goals is the writer referring to?

14. List the vocabulary connected with the solution of the problems.

 

LEADERSHIP

by Fred E. Friedler and Martin N. Chemers

Exercise

1.What common assumption regarding leadership is called into question by the writer in para.l of the text?

2.How do the writers refute this assumption? (cite first and last word, and give line numbers, for the relevant quotation).

3.A. Para. 2 tells us that it is difficult to evaluate the __________(one word) of a leader or manager.

B. What elements must be measured when such an evalua­tion is made?

4. (line 16-17) The phrase — «to nail jelly to a wall» is used

by the writers to suggest that __________________

5. What do the findings of Webster, Wagner (1949), Mayfield (1964) and others show regarding the assumption mentioned in lines 1 and 2 of the text?

6. What proved to be the best predictor for future behavior on the job in the Kelley and Fiske (1951) study?

7. The authors state that «good performance criteria are essential for rational selection (11.65-66). What are some of the problems involved in establishing these criteria?

8. What is the main focus of Part 1 of the Leadership text?

9. «in comparison» (11. 161)

What two factors are being compared here?

1.

2.

10. «the managers who switched and failed» (11. 194)

a.       What did they «switch»?

b.      How did they «fail»?

1 l.The statement «Someone who is intelligent,... for a lead­ership position» (11. 216-219) explains what the writers mean by the word_____________in the preceding sentence.

12. From paragraphs 18 & 19 we leam that having leader­ship traits

can help a person to__________________, but

not necessarily to______________________.

13. What are the implications of the fact that «very often the choice of a particular individual [for a leadership position] is quite fortuitous? (11. 243-244)

 

14. From paragraphs 23-28 we leam that whether or not a particular person will be an effective leader depends upon the ___________(one word).

 

THE ROLE OF ELITES

Exercise

1. From the opening paragraph it becomes clear that the article will deal with specific types of «elites», in specific places, and under specific conditions.

A. Define the category of «elites» as the term is used in this text?

B. Where are/were these elites to be found?

C. What political situation do the countries involved have in common?

2. A. Which problem of the elites is the writer primarily interested in?

B. Why did each of the following professions fail to offer a solution to the problem?

i. Journalism

ii. The Medical Profession

iii. Teaching (at the lower levels)

iv. Teaching (at the secondary and higher levels)

3. Why did the legal profession offer an effective solution to the problem of the elites?

4. A. Why is it that «a person need not earn a living by legal practice in order to be a lawyer?»(11.92-93 )

 

B. How does this fact explain the large number of underemployed lawyers?

C. How does it explain the relationship between the lawyerintellectuals and the political elites of the new states?

5. A. Why does the writer bother to justify including the category of «students» among the intellectual elites.

B. How does he justify it? (Where, when and why were even high school students regarded as «intellectuals?»)

6. A. When were the first student movements organized?

B. When and why did students first become politically active? intellectuals of underdeveloped countries?

C. How did it happen that The London School of Eco­nomics (which is not located in an underdeveloped country) contributed more than any other educational institution «to the excitation of nationalistic sentiment» (11,142-146)

D. «... were themselves formed in these milieux (1.156). In which milieux were these leaders formed?

E. Why was it necessary for future Third-world leaders to come to London or Paris to «acquire some degree of na­tional consciousness,» and «to feel how retrograde their own countries were» (11.152, 153)

7. Paragraph 16 gives us three explanations for «the politi­cal propensities of students.» What are they?

1.

2.

3.

8. A. In what way were India and Egypt worse off than Ghana, Nigeria, and Pakistan at the time this article was written?

B. Why was this situation relatively bad in India and Egypt?

    С. Why was it somewhat better in Pakistan?

    D. Why wasn't it at all bad in Ghana and Nigeria?

9. A. What is the difference between under— (or mal-) employment and unemployment?

B. How is this distinction related to the phenomenon of «hidden unemployment»?

 

ISOLATION

1.      «this combination of natural and artificial isolation» (II.28)

a. The «natural» isolation was the result of________.

b. The «artificial» isolation was the result of_______.

2. A. «Thus natural geographic isolation at first compounded later by human design, forced the Japanese to live more sepa­rately from the rest of the world than any other comparably large and advanced group of people.»(II.24-27)

В. «or perhaps one should say that this combination of natural and artificial isolation enabled them more than most other peoples to develop on their own and in their own way». (11.27-30)

The two statements, A and B, represent different ways of conveying essentially the same information.

They differ significantly, however, in point of view.

1. Explain this difference.(What is the point of view of A? -of B?)

2. In what respect is the above statement — and — re­statement (A and B) similar to the following statement.

 

 «It has made other people, even the nearby Koreans and Chinese, look on the Japanese as being somehow different, and has produced in the Japanese a strong sense ofself-dentity».

3. Why do you suppose the writer keeps shifting the point of view in this way? (What is he probably trying to tell us by implication?)

3. What combination of characteristics makes Japan «unique» (1.34)?

a. It is____________.

b. It is_____________.

4. Why is it «ironic» (47) that isolation has «caused the Japanese to be acutely aware of anything that comes from outside and to draw special attention to its foreign provenance»? (11.47-49) (i.e., what ironic effect has this had on Japan's repu­tation?)

5. The British Isles are mentioned (1.74) to illustrate the point that_________________.

6. «But prolonged separation ... terrain». (II. 74-76)

A. The internal barriers would normally pre­vent_______.

B. In Japan these internal geographical barriers did not have the effect they have had in other parts of the world. Why not?

7. A. There is «a diversity of facial types in Japan». (II. 82, 83)

B. There «are few important physical variations» among the Japanese.(II.87, 88)

a. How does the writer manage to reconcile the above facts, which are seemingly contradictory?

b. Both facts are part of the evidence supporting the main idea in paragraph 7. What is that idea?

8. A. What do we learn from paragraph 9 about the ethnic origins of the people of Korea and North China, as opposed to those of South China?

B. Which of these groups do the Japanese resemble more closely in their physical characteristics?

C. Which group are they «basically» (line 114) closest to?

9. Why is the eighth century of considerable importance in the ethnic history of Japan?

10.The fact that the Japanese are a product of «racial min­gling» (II. 136,137) contradicts the myth that they are____.

11 .A. For which two reasons would it have been natural for the Koreans to have become absorbed within the Japanese population both culturally and racially?

12. Explain the irony in the lines 184-189: «Clearly they included people engaged in leather work or butchery, since the Buddhist prejudice against the taking of all animal life made others look down on such persons, though... not on the butchers of human life in a feudal society dominated by a military elite».

13. In drawing his «population and G[ross] N[ational] P[roduct] maps»(ll. 220) the writer distorted the actual (geo­graphic) setting of Japan in two ways. Define these two distor­tions and give his justification for each.

a.

b.

14. «attitudes and skills once suitable to their position in the world do not serve them as well today» (II. 239, 240)

A. What is their position in the world today?

B. What aspect of their culture has he mentioned that might not «serve them as well today» as it did in the past? (And why not?)

15. «Isolation and homogeneity do not necessarily go to­gether» (1. 70-71).

A. Which of these two qualities have been characteristic of Japan in the past?

B. What changes, if any, has Japan undergone with re­spect to these two qualities in recent times?

 

THE OUTSIDERS

 

(Exercise A)

Rart I

1. In para.l: Why are «right» and «wrong» in quotation marks?

2. In paras.4, 5 (II.20-32):

A. What are the three types of rules mentioned?

1.

2a.

2b.

2.      What types of agents of «enforcement» are mentioned?

la.

1b.

2.

4. «... the rule-breaker may feel his judges are outsiders.» (1. 10, 14) In which lines (further on in the text) does Becker give us examples illustrating this point? (Give first and last words and line numbers).

5. A. Para 6 (II.33-39) categorizes outsiders according to the degree to which we________________.

B. Para 7 (II.40-48) categorizes rule-breakers according to the degree to which they____________.

6. For the section sub-titled «Definitions of Deviance».

A.    Describe the different definitions of «deviance» which the author rejects. After each description cite the writer's criticism/s of that particular view of deviance.(Give the line numbers for the sections dealing with each view).

Definition 1 (line numbers _______) :

Criticism/s : Definition 2 (line numbers_______) :

criticism/s Definition 3 (line numbers________) :

criticism/s Definition 4 (line numbers________) :

criticism/s Definition 5 (line numbers__________)

 

Criticism/s :

7. «Another sociological view is more relativistic.» (1.158) In what sense is it more «relativistic» than the preceding view (which concerns itself with that which is functional or dys­functional within a given society)?

8. The sociological view that «is closest to [the writer's] own [view] (1.163) cannot deal adequately with_________ situations.

(one word)

9. What is Becker's definition of deviance? (Give brief sum­mary and line numbers.)

10. «Some people may be labeled deviant who in fact have not broken a rule» (II. 203, 205)

«Many offenders may escape apprehension and thus fail to be included in the population of «deviants». (II.210, 211)

Both of the above facts are cited by Becker as proof of the inadequacy of certain views of deviance. Which views? In what sense can they be considered proof of the inadequacy of these views?

11. What function is served by the long quotation from Malinowski?

12. A. What sub-title might be given to the section begin­ning with line 297 and ending with line 347 (The degree ... the mother)?

B.     How many different «variations» does the author cite in this section? (List them and give line numbers for each).

a. (lines ): variations related to ___________.

b. (lines ): variations related to ___________.

e. (lines ): variations related to ___________.

13. «Crimes committed by corporations are almost always prosecuted as civil cases, but the same crime committed by an individual is ordinarily treated as a criminal offense» (II.334-337) This illustrates the author's thesis that__________.

14. Vincent's note on unmarried fathers (II.340-347) is cited by Becker as an example which supports which thesis?

15. A girl who becomes pregnant as a result of an illicit sexual relationship (II. 342-347) suffers severe condemnation for which two reasons?

A.

B.

16. Becker's view of deviance has been labeled «The Inter­active Approach». Which sentence in the text makes clear why this label has been applied? (Give 1st and last words and line numbers). Who (or what) are the factors that «interact» in this view?

THE OUTSIDERS

                (Exercise B)

           Events in the Narrative and their Sequence (II.)

The following statements represent events which occurred in the narrative. Rearrange the statements according to the order in which they occurred (NOT necessarily the order in which the author relates them). Number the statements from 1 to 11.

 __a. The quarrel was repeated during the funeral.

 __b. Kima'i broke the rule of exogamy.

     __c. Later he insulted the culprit in public and accused him in the hearing of the whole community of incest.

     __d. It became the duty of his clansman to avenge him.

     __e. Among the Trobrianders there was a rule of exogamy.

 __f. The girl's discarded lover, who had wanted to marry her, felt personally injured.

 __g. Before jumping to his death, he explained the rea­sons for his desperate deed and launched forth a veiled accusa­tion against the man who had forced him into this situation.

__h. The partner in his crime was his maternal cousin, the daughter of his mother's sister.

__i. He took the initiative and first threatened to use black

magic.

__j. There was a general feeling of hostility between the villages.

__k. After having been publicly insulted, the unfortunate guilty youth had only one means of escape.

__1. There followed a fight within the village in which the rival was wounded.

 

STUDENT POWER IN THE MIDDLE AGES

by Alan B. Cobban

I. Preview:

1. If you had to write an article today,or to tell someone in the year 3000 about what happened in the world in the 1990's with respect to student power or student protest — what would you tell them?

2. This text is from History Today (February 1980). Which of the following points of information would you expect to find in the text? Place a (+) in front of the information you can reasonably expect to find and a (?) in front of information you are less certain to find.

__1. Where student power first got its start

__2. When student power first got its start

__3. What conditions or steps led to the rise of student power

__4. How student power manifested itself (What forms it took)

__5. Whether student power was the same everywhere — at all universities

__6. Whether there were any changes in student power over time

__7. How student power in the Middle Ages compares with student power today

Read the text and indicate where you located information about any of the above topics (put the paragraph and/or line numbers after each topic) . What additional topics does the text discuss?

II. Student Power — Review Questions — Para. 1 -3

1. According to para.l, there were «important dissimilari­ties»

(1.6) between________and_____________.

2. List some of these dissimilarities:

i.

ii.

iii.

3. How did the students of the Middle Ages view the func­tion of university?

4. What was the purpose of medieval student rebellion? (How was it similar to or different from student activities to­day?) Para.4-9

5. At which university and in which century did student power first manifest itself? i. university:________; ii. cen­tury:____________.

6. What were the two main factors which led to the estab­lishment of the student guilds?

7. Was the original intention of the student organizations the turn-over of the university? yes/no? Quote from the text to justify your answer. Lines:_______ (Quote relevant words)

8. Did the university doctors willingly accept the form stu­dent power took? (Yes) (No) Why (or why not)?

9. What characteristic of medieval students makes it easier to understand why the students were able to gain so much control over the universities?

10. Para. 10 — True/False -Justify your answer by quoting relevant words or phrases from the text. (Give first and last word and line numbers).

__ 1. Teachers were able to participate and vote in the student government system.

__________________________________________________________________

__ 2. Students chose their own theachers for the university staff.

__________________________________________________________________

__ 3. The student rector was in charge of all teaching matters.

__________________________________________________________________

__ 4. Lecturers were not held responsible for laws decided upon by the students.

__________________________________________________________________

__ 5. Teachers set the schedules and determined the course content.

__________________________________________________________________

__ 6. Students were obliged to boycott a lecturer who had outstanding fines to pay.

__________________________________________________________________

__ 7. Teachers were obligated to hold class no matter how many students failed to show up.

___________________________________________________________________

 

ARE CRIMINALS MADE OR BORN?

by Hermstein and Wilson

MAKING AN OUTLINE

Fill in the blanks in the following outline:

I. CAUSES OF CRIME - SOCIAL (Paragraphs____)

1. supported by_____________.

2. When did this viewpoint prevail?___________.

3. The basis for this viewpoint is___________.

II. CAUSES OF CRIME - SOCIAL AND BIOLOGI­CAL (Paragraph/s____)

1. most offenders are____________________.

3.      proofs that social explanations alone are insufficient

a.

b.

3. Macccoby-Jacklin findings:

a.

b.

c.

III. BIOLOGICAL FACTORS IN CRIMINALITY

A. Studies of________________________.

a. Christiansen findings:________________.

b. Rowe findings:____________________.

B. Studies of adopted children: findings:__________.

C. Genetic contribution to crime

a. Question one (para.__)_______________.

b. Question two (para.__)_______________.

c. Answer to Question One: (para.__)_________.

d. Answer to Question Two: (para.__)_________.

D. Issue of Intelligence (paras. 16-19)

a. correlation with crime (para.__)__________.

b. social explanations for correlation (para. 17)______.

c. counter-arguments:

1. para. 18:____________________.

2. para. 19:____________________.

3. para. 20 refers back to_____________.

E. Issue of Temperament: Sociopathy (para.__)

a._____________.

b._____________.

F. Early signs foreshadowing criminal behavior (para.__).

G. Sex factor (nature or nurture?) (para.__)

H. Prematurity and low-birth-weight:non-genetic factor (nature and nurture) (paras.__ and__)

a._____________.

b._____________.

I. Positive implications of study of biological factors (paras.__)

IV. DEFINING CRIMINALITY AND PINPOINTING POTENTIAL CRIMINALS

(paras.___)

1. Problems:_______________________.

2. Importance:______________________.

3. Qualifications of these problems:

QUESTIONS ON: ARE CRIMINALS MADE OR BORN?

(paras. 1-14)

1.According to para.l, what is the answer to the title ques­tion?

2.According to para.2, what is the answer to the title ques­tion?

3.What is the author's answer to the title question?

4. Summarize the research findings in paragraph 3 in one sentence.

5.According to paragraph 4, what are the two main social explanations for the effects of age and sex on crime? (This involves generalizing)

a.

b.

6.According to para.4, social scientists eventually questioned «purely social explanations» (1.41) for the effects of age and sex on crime because:_________________________

______________________________every­where despite the fact that____________________

7. Line 69 states, «There is evidence». Para.6 gives us evi­dence that_____________________________

8.When trying to find out if a trait is genetic, it is helpful to compare identical twins with fraternal twins because

a. while both sets of twins have_____________

b. identical twins also have_________________

9.Thus, if the identical twins are more similar in behavior than the fraternal twins, we can conclude that the similarity was influenced by_______________________.

10 Para.ll, lines 135, 136, says «essentially the same results are found in studies of adopted children».

a. the same results as____________________.

b. In what way are they the same?

11. Give three reasons why researchers would hesitate to say genetic contributions are responsible for crime.

a.

b.

c.

12. Find and list 10 synonyms for cause/effect/reason and result or verbs that are associated with cause-effect relation­ship

Line(s):                        Word or phrase:

ARE CRIMINALS MADE OR BORN? (paras 15 - end) IQ as a HERITABLE BASE for CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

1. List 3 reasons why some criminologists have objected to the view that low IQ is a cause of criminal behavior.

а.

b.

с.

7.    How does the writer counter their objections?

a.

b.

c.

8.    What may explain the link between IQ and criminality?

a.

b.

c.

4. (Inference) Tne statement, «some highly intelligent crimi­nals may be good at eluding capture is fully consistent with the belief that offenders, in general, have lower scores than nonofienders» (11.215-220).

This statement implies that the number of intelligent crimi­nals is________________.

TEMPERAMENT as a HERITABLE BASE FOR CRIMI­NAL BEHAVIOR (paras. 21-25 )

5. What aspects of temperament associated with criminality seem to be biological?

6. How do these characteristics have a negative influence on the social context in which the child is reared?

7. What social contexts can give rise to biological characteristics which are associated with criminality?

REACTIONS TO THE STUDY OF BIOLOGICAL FACTORS IN CRIME

8. What forms has the «political or ideological reaction» taken?

a.

b.

c.

9. Lines: 314, 315 mention «the higher crime rate of black compa- red to white Americans». Do the authors accept that this has a genetic basis? Yes/No quote a sentence from the text that expresses their opinion.

10. In Para.28

a. criminality is compared with what other biologically based disorders?

b. For what purpose

11. a. What makes crime admittedly ... a more difficult program» (1.343)?

 

WHAT IS A HISTORICAL FACT?

(Exercise A)

Figurative Language

In Column 1 you will find 10 examples of figurative lan­guage used by the author.

From Column 2 choose the sentence that best reflects the meaning of the quote from the text. Record the letter of your choice in the space provided before the sentence in Column 1.


COLUMN 1

what the author says...        

1. certain basic facts... form     

2. To praise a historian for his   accuracy is like praising architect for using wall-seasoned timber … in his building (13-16).

3. These so-called basic facts ...   belong to the category of the raw materials of historian (25-27).

4. The facts speak for themselves (31-32).

5. The facts speak only when the historian calls on them (31, 32).

6. A fact is like a sack — it won't stand up until you put something in it (34-36).

7. The records of...history are starred with lacunae.

8. History has been called an ennormous jig-saw with a lot of missing parts (70-71).

9. The dead hand of vanished generations of historians...has determined beyond the possibi­lity of appeal the pattern of the past (99-101).

10. They (the facts of history) are always refracted through the mind of the recorder (103-104).


COLUMN 2

 

he means...

a. The facts are important  when the historian thinks they are.

c.         There are some qualities an in the facts themselves which make them seem important.

d.         There are certain facts which the historian can make use of in developing his theories.

d. There are certain essential facts which give history its structure.

e. The facts of history are influenced by the mental processes of the historian.

f. Historical writing presents an incomplete record.

g. A fact is meaningless until you interpret it.

h. One expects the historian to use verified, reliable facts in his writing.

    d.We cannot challenge concep­tions of the past because we are limited to the facts pre­sented by writers of the past.

 j. History is an attempt to reconstruct the past without having complete information.


WHAT IS A HISTORICAL FACT

(Exercise B)

1. What is the «commonsense view» of the title question?

2. What are the author's two observations regarding the commonsense view? Quote the sentences that best sum up his points and give line numbers.

i.lines:_________»________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

ii.lines:________»_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. According to the author, accuracy for a historian is (circle one) :

a.       a virtue but not a necessity

b.      necessary and therefore a virtue

c.       necessary but not sufficient

4. a. What are the «auxiliary sciences» (1.19) for the histo­rian?

b. What is the role of these «auxiliary sciences» for the historian?

5. The reader's arrival in «this building» (1.42) is an ex­ample of what? .

6. According to paragraph one, what makes a fact histori­cal?

7. What single sentence in paragraph one best states the main idea presented in the paragraph? lines:_____ First three words:

Para.2 — end of text

8. When he was a student, Carr never thought about those facts that once must have been known but were________

9. What distinction does Carr make between the study of ancient or medieval history and modern history?

10. In 11.72 Carr says «But the main trouble does not consist in the lacunae». In what does the main trouble consist?

11. a. According to paragraph 2, why might students of history think the people of the Middle Ages were deeply con­cerned with religion?

b. Why does Carr say he wonders if perhaps the people of the Middle Ages were not deeply concerned with religion? (11.85-86)

12. The «intelligent undergraduate» who consults with his fellow student about «Jones» (1. 113-114) is following what recommendation of Carr's?

13. Express Carr's «second point» (1. 132) as a recommen­dation to a historian.

14. Burckhardt, in making the remark about the Thirty Years War (11.140-143), is an example of (circle one):

a. a historian bound by the views of his own age

b. a historian entering the minds of the people he is studying

15. One problem of the historian is that man is neither_________________________________________

nor__________________________________________________________________________________

16. Indicate whether Carr would AGREE or DISAGREE with the following statement. (Quote the lines in the text which support your answer).

Using the language and concepts of the period he is writing about enables the historian to be objective, first word______; last word________ — lines:_____

17. Based on this text, what advice do you think Carr might give to a young historian starting out today?

18. Read «What is a Journalist's "Fact"?» in Part III above.

a. What similarities do you see between Carr's ideas and those of Cockbum?

b. What similarities do you see between the writing styles of Carr and Cockbum?

 

MORALITY AND FOREIGN POLICY

1. Kennan claims that he has written this article in order to______________________________

2a. In lines 29 to 35, Kennan clarifies the duty of the gov­ernment to the national society by comparing it to that of_______________________________

2b. The basis of the comparison is that they all________

3. What are the «unavoidable necessities of a national exist­ence» (lines 42)

4. According to paragraph 4, once the government «accepts the responsibilites of governing» (lines 46, 47), it no longer___

5. According to paragraph 5, in order to avoid «moral re­proach» (line 64), we must allow both___________and______the right to_____________________

6. «these blessings» (lines 68) were identified earlier in lines:_____________________________

7. The Yalta Declaration and the Kellogg-Briand Pact are mentioned as examples of ________________in­ternational agreements.                                                                                                                [one word]

 

8. In paragraphs 8 and 9, the writer emphasizes the REAL­ISTIC/ UNREALISTIC [circle one] nature of various inter­national documents. Support your answer by quoting a sen­tence from the text.

Lines:____         Quote               relevant

words:____________________________

9. Kennan concludes by denying the American government the right to take retaliatory action when_____________

GENERAL QUESTIONS

10A. Does Kennan support an amoral foreign policy? [yes/ no?] Quote from the text to support your answer. Lines:_________Quote relevant words _________

10b. Under which conditions might foreign policy be con­sidered «immoral» (line 13).

11. Kennan's position on the Helsinki accords in para. 9 shows that basically he HAS REVISED/CONTINUES TO SUPPORT [circle one] his observations of nearly 35 years ago. Quote a sentence from para. 9 to support your answer.

lines:__________ First three words________ last

word:_______.

12. Summarize each of the distinctions (line 18) in one sentence.

 

HUMAN MIGRATION

Exercise

1. (para.5) What are the defining characteristics of «these civilized diseases?» (1,60) __________________

Cite two examples of «civilized diseases» (a)________________(b)

2. (para. 6) Why was it once necessary to recruit urban population from the countryside?

3. A. (para. 7) How does the language «shift» (1,83) in ancient Mesopotamia seem to illustrate the effects of «civi­lized diseases»?

B. What language was originally spoken by the «in-migrants»? (1, 87)

С. What language did they speak after they mi­grated?_____

4. What other examples does the writer give of language «shifts»

related to the effects or «civilized diseases»?

A. In_________, the language shifted from__________to

           (city)                                                   (language)

(language)

B. In_____, the language shifted from ________to

(city)                             (language)

(language )

5. (para. 8) «Armies constituted another significant popula­tion sump». (11. 101)

A. What else constituted a significant «population sump?» B. How does a «population sump» function?

6. (paras. 9-10) Peasants who left the countryside migrated to one of these 3 destinations.

a.________b.__________c.__________

7. (para. 10)

A. What health advantage did city people have over coun­try people?

B. How was this advantage useful in making lands avail­able for settlement?

8. (para.15) «Two more migration patterns» (1,189) These involved

1._______who moved toward the________.

2._________who moved toward the_______.

9. (paras. 17-18) Give 2 examples of elites who moved away from the cities.

a.______________b._______________.

10. (para.19) Raiding and robbery are directly related to the phenomenon     of     (limit     2     words)

________________________________

11.(para.21)

A. «Effors at defense»(l. 273) were made by ____elites.

B. The war chariot (1. 276) is mentioned as an example of

12 (para. 26) Two sources of the manpower needs of civi­lized elites were

a:_______________b:_______________

13 (para. 27) The Jews and Visigoths and Vandals are examples of

_________________________________

14 Para. 28 mentions populations who moved from____

to________________________.

 

INTERGRATING RISK ANALYSIS INTO PUBLIC POLICYMAKING

Exercise:

1. If you had to answer the question: Does, can and should risk analysis affect public policy, what would your answer be?

2. In para. 2 some issues and topics for which risk analysis could, should or may be important are suggested.

What are these issues and topics?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

3. What is the «scientific literacy» of the US public from Jon Miller's point of view? Give his definition scientific lit­eracy.

1.

2.

3.

Prove that the US public lacks the necessary understanding.

4. In Para. 5 it is said that an important question in the nuclear industry has been how to describe the nuclear power plants to the public and it is suggested that the industry has been searching for more descriptive language. What terms have been picked out by the people and why?

1.

2.

3.

4.

What was driving public opinion?

5. From para.6 we learn that the question was asked: Which would the people choose for their state — more jobs or stricter environmental laws? What was their answer and what would you answer?

6. Skimming. — Skim paras. 12-13 and determine the role of the Media and of the Government in accordance with risk analysis.

7.      There are some abbreviations in the article.

Explain them:

1.DOE( 8.135)________________________

2.РСВ(11.169)________________________

3.0MB(14.207)________________________

4.EPA(14.211)________________________

5.RFF(16,231)________________________

8.Explain how you understand «We are literally not watch­ing the fiddler fiddle while Rome bums, we are watching the entire orchestra». (13.199, 200)

8.      «More research needed(para.l7)

Which areas need further research?

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Give full answers.

10. «Technical people do have credibility. They also have a responsibility» (18,268)

Summarize responsibility in Thomas Jefferson's words.

 

EDUCATION AND POLITICAL TOLERANCE

Exercise

1.What is the relationship between the researchers " objec­tives (paragraphs — and —) and their hypothesis (paragraphs -and -)?

2.Which paragraph gives us a plan, or map, of the first part of the text (until the Data and Measures section)?

3.The writers divide all the previous researchers whose work they cite into two broad categories. What are these categories?

a._____________of the education-tolerance hy­pothesis.

b.______________of the education-tolerance hypothesis.

4.In what sense are the studies cited in paragraphs 6-8 gen­erally optimistic?

5.Why might Merelman's conclusions (para. 13) be described as highly pessimistic?

6.Jackman (in para.9) suggested that the studies supporting the education-tolerance hypothesis failed to take account of an important factor. What factor was that?

7.How are the findings of Prothro and Grigg (in para.7) and Jackman (in paras. 10 and 11) related?

8. Sullivan, Piereson and Marcus (in para. 12) maintained that Stouffer's findings indicated something different from what they had been thought to indicate.

a. What had they been thought to indicate?

b. What did they actually indicate?

9.In para. 15 the writers define what they mean by «cogni­tive sophistication.» How do they define it?

10.In what way did Sullivan's work (paras. 12 and 16) influ­ence the work of the writers of this article?:

11.Which paragraph gives us a plan of the research proce­dures used by the writers of the article? (para. 19)

12.The findings of one of the two categories of previous researchers (see question 3 above) are to some extent refuted by the findings reported in the Discussion and Conclusions section. Which category is that?

13. A. How do the writers try to account for the difference between their own findings and those whose findings they seem to have refuted? In which paragraph is this explanation sug­gested? (para. 22)

В. How do they suggest that their own findings are more significant than those of Sullivan and his colleagues? (answer in para.22)

14. How do the writers manage to suggest that Jackman's findings (para. 10,11 ,and 24) were right, but wrongly interpreted?

15. Para.25 suggests that the findings of the advocates and the critics of the education-political tolerance theory do not contradict each other. Rather, some researchers ______

the same findings optimistically, while others _________

them pessimistically.

A TECHNOLOGY OF BEHAVIOR

                       by B.F. Skinner

 Exercise :

1. What does Skinner mean by a «scientific analysis of be­havior»?

2. Do you believe it possible to change human behavior to such a degree as to create a stable, nondestructive society?

3. What might Skinner recommend to facilitate this change?

4. According to the author, why hasn't there been a devel­opment of a science of human behavior comparable to that of physics and biology?

5. Note the repeated use of the words physical and non-physical in paras 10 and 11. What is the intent of this?

6. How does the rhetorical question posed in paragraph 15 strengthen Skinner's argument?

7. Where does Skinner state his solution to the problem stated?

8. Discuss the following statement made by Skinner: «Twenty-five hundred years ago it might have been said that man understood himself as well as any other part of his world. Today he is the thing he understands least».

9. Do you agree that it is not enough to «use technology with a deeper understanding of human issues»?

 

ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ

BOOK I

PART I. WORD POWER (VOCABULARY STUDY)

SECTION  1. INTRODUCTION TO WORD POWER (WP).......................................................................................................................... 5

SECTION II. WORDS ON WORDS.................................................................................................................................................................... 5

SECTION III. EVALUATE YOUR WORD KNOWLEDGE......................................................................................................................... 8

SECTION IV. THE WORD IN THE DICTIONARY....................................................................................................................................... 9

SECTION V. CONNOTATION......................................................................................................................................................................... 12

SECTION VI. A STRUCTURAL APPROACH TO WORD STUDY......................................................................................................... 13

SECTION VII. A CONTEXTUAL APPROACH TO WORD STUDY....................................................................................................... 15

SECTION VIII. SEMANTIC FIELDS.............................................................................................................................................................. 17

UNIT A: AREAS, SCRIPTS, TOPICS, CATEGORIES............................................................................................................................... 17

UNIT B: LANGUAGE OF RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS IN SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES (“Hedging”)....................................... 20

UNIT C: TERMS USED IN STUDY AND TEST SITUATIONS................................................................................................................ 21

SECTION IX. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.................................................................................................................................................... 21

SECTION X. APPNDIX...................................................................................................................................................................................... 22

UNIT 1: PREFIXES, STEMS, (ROOTS) SUFFIXES.................................................................................................................................. 22

A: PREFIXES.................................................................................................................................................................................................... 22

В: NUMERICAL PREFIXES USED IN MEASUREMENTS..................................................................................................................... 24

C: QUANTITATIVE PREFIXES.................................................................................................................................................................... 24

D: STEMS/ROOTS........................................................................................................................................................................................... 25

E. Suffixes used to form (and sinify) the various parts of speech............................................................................................................. 29

UNIT 2: REFERENCE WORDS AND ABBREVIATIONS........................................................................................................................ 29

UNIT 3: VERBS FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES........................................................................................................................................... 32

UNIT 4: TERMS USED IN TEXT ANALYSIS.............................................................................................................................................. 33

UNIT 5: THE UNIVERSITY WORD LIST.................................................................................................................................................... 34

PART II. AN APPROACH TO READING

SECTION I. INTRODUCTION TO AN APPROACH TO READING................................................................................................... 41

UNIT 1. VARIETIES OF MEANING............................................................................................................................................................. 41

UNIT 2. WHAT THE WRITER MEANS........................................................................................................................................................ 42

(AND WHAT HE ASSUMES THE READER ALREADY KNOWS).......................................................................................................... 42

SECTION II. DEALING WITH SENTENCE.................................................................................................................................................. 43

UNIT 1. EXERCISES ON SENTENCE PATTERNS................................................................................................................................... 43

UNIT 2. COMPLEX. SIMPLE. COMPLEX ................................................................................................................................................ 50

UNIT 3. REGISTER......................................................................................................................................................................................... 51

UNIT 4. USING RELATIVE PRONOUNS TO FORM COMPLEX SENTENCE .................................................................................. 51

UNIT 5. STRUCTURES WITH OMISSION ................................................................................................................................................ 52

UNIT 6. THE USES OF PUNCTUATION .................................................................................................................................................. 53

UNIT 7. DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN SIMILAR SENTENCES........................................................................................................... 53

UNIT 8. INDIRECTION: NEGATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS...................................................................................................................... 54

UNIT 9. IMPLICATION.................................................................................................................................................................................. 56

UNIT 10. TYPES OF AMBIGUITY............................................................................................................................................................... 56

UNIT 11. WHAT THE WRITER MEANS BUT FOR SOME REASONS PREFERS NOT TO SAY DIRECTLY............................... 57

SECTION III. DEALING WITH PARAGRAPHS.......................................................................................................................................... 58

UNIT 1. COHERENCE.................................................................................................................................................................................... 58

UNIT 2. OLD AND NEW INFORMATION.................................................................................................................................................. 60

UNIT 3. THE ORDERING OF SENTENCES IN A PARAGRAPH ......................................................................................................... 61

SECTION IV. DEALING WITH TEXTS......................................................................................................................................................... 63

UNIT 1. TYPES OF DISCOURSE................................................................................................................................................................. 63

UNIT 2. READING STRATEGIES................................................................................................................................................................. 64

UNIT 3. WHAT TITLES TELL US................................................................................................................................................................. 65

UNIT 4. DIFFERENT WAYS OF PRESENTING INFORMATION......................................................................................................... 66

UNIT 5. TYPES OF SCHOLARLY................................................................................................................................................................. 68

UNIT 6. GENERAL QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES THAT CAN (AND SHOULD) BE APPLIED TO ANY TEXT..................... 68

UNIT 7. READING/WRITING ABSTRACTS............................................................................................................................................... 70

UNIT 8. READING/WRITING A SUMMARY.............................................................................................................................................. 73

SECTION V. APPENDIX................................................................................................................................................................................... 74

UNIT 1. PARTS OF SPEECH........................................................................................................................................................................ 74

UNIT 2. SENTENCE PATTERNS ................................................................................................................................................................. 76

UNIT 3. PUNCTUATION .............................................................................................................................................................................. 84

UNIT 4. THE CONJUNCTIONS OR CONNECTORS OF ENGLISH..................................................................................................... 86

UNIT 5. THE PREPOSITIONS OF ENGLISN............................................................................................................................................ 87

UNIT 6. COMMON CUES FOR THE READER (Devices That Further Coherence).......................................................................... 91

PART III. SHORT TEXTS

ANNUAL REPORT ON SPACESHIP EARTH.............................................................................................................................................. 92

«WHAT REALLY MATTERED»..................................................................................................................................................................... 92

«WRITING OF WOMEN».............................................................................................................................................................................. 94

«TO BE A WOMAN AND A SCHOLAR»...................................................................................................................................................... 94

«FILTERS AGAINST FOLLY»....................................................................................................................................................................... 96

CHIMPS EAT CHIMPS....................................................................................................................................................................................... 96

SIGNS IN THE WILDERNESS......................................................................................................................................................................... 98

MIGHTIER THAN THE PEN.......................................................................................................................................................................... 100

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR SYNCHRONIZED INPUT SHAFT......................................................................................................... 101

WHAT IS A JOURNALIST'S «FACT»?........................................................................................................................................................ 102

AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN NAISBITT,................................................................................................................................................ 103

CRIME AND POVERTY.................................................................................................................................................................................. 104

BANALITY AND TERROR............................................................................................................................................................................ 105

TWO ANALOGIES FROM THE NOVELS OF CHINUA ACHEBE....................................................................................................... 106

THE ECONOMETRICS SYSTEM................................................................................................................................................................. 108

SUBSISTENCE ALLOWANCE..................................................................................................................................................................... 110

SUBSISTENCE ALLOWANCE.................................................................................................................................................................... 110

IT'S ALL GREEK............................................................................................................................................................................................... 110

THE MYSTERY OF LANGUAGE................................................................................................................................................................. 111

THE TASK OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY................................................................................................................................................... 113

«PRICING THE PRICELESS CHILD»*....................................................................................................................................................... 113

«THE FRENZY OF RENOWN»...................................................................................................................................................................... 114

BOOK II

PART IV. LONGER READING

LEARNING THE HARD WAY....................................................................................................................................................................... 116

MAN OF WISDOM........................................................................................................................................................................................... 118

JAPANESE EDUCATION............................................................................................................................................................................... 120

EDUCATING LAWYERS............................................................................................................................................................................... 124

THE GENESIS OF THE MODERN TOY...................................................................................................................................................... 133

HUMANISTIC MEDICINE............................................................................................................................................................................. 135

HANDS: A CASE STUDY............................................................................................................................................................................... 137

ECOLOGICAL ARMAGEDDON.................................................................................................................................................................. 140

WATER, WAR & PEACE................................................................................................................................................................................ 143

CLIMATE CHANGE...................................................................................................................................................................................... 145

LEADERSHIP..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 151

THE ROLE OF ELITES.................................................................................................................................................................................... 155

ISOLATION........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 157

THE USE AND ABUSE OF DRUGS............................................................................................................................................................. 160

OUTSIDERS....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 164

STUDENT POWER IN MIDDLE AGES....................................................................................................................................................... 168

ARE CRIMINALS MADE OR BORN?......................................................................................................................................................... 170

WHAT IS A HISTORICAL FACT?................................................................................................................................................................ 175

MORALITY AND FOREIGN POLICY......................................................................................................................................................... 177

MORALITY AND FOREIGN POLICY: APPENDIX................................................................................................................................ 179

HUMAN MIGRATION:................................................................................................................................................................................... 179

INTEGRATING RISK ANALYSIS INTO PUBLIC POLICYMAKING................................................................................................ 185

EDUCATION AND POLITICAL TOLERANCE........................................................................................................................................ 188

«A TECHNOLOGY OF BEHAVIOR».......................................................................................................................................................... 196

«HOW PSYCHOLOGY SANCTIONS THE CULT OF THE SELF»....................................................................................................... 199

EXPLAINING REVOLUTIONS IN THE CONTEMPORARY THIRD WORLD................................................................................. 205

PART V. EXERCISES on Texts in Parts III and IV.................................................................................................................... 210

ANNUAL REPORT ON SPACESHIP EARTH............................................................................................................................................ 210

CHIMPS EAT CHIMPS,................................................................................................................................................................................... 211

SIGNS IN THE WILDERNESS....................................................................................................................................................................... 211

MIGHTIER THAN THE PEN.......................................................................................................................................................................... 212

CRIME AND POVERTY.................................................................................................................................................................................. 213

BANALITY AND TERROR............................................................................................................................................................................ 213

THE TASK OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY................................................................................................................................................... 214

LEARNING THE HARD WAY....................................................................................................................................................................... 215

MAN OF WISDOM........................................................................................................................................................................................... 215

JAPANESE EDUCATION............................................................................................................................................................................... 216

EDUCATING LAWYERS WITH ENVIRONMENTAL SAVVY........................................................................................................... 218

THE GENESIS OF THE MODERN TOY...................................................................................................................................................... 219

HUMANISTIC MEDICINE............................................................................................................................................................................. 221

HANDS: A CASE STUDY............................................................................................................................................................................... 222

ECOLOGICAL ARMAGEDDON.................................................................................................................................................................. 223

WATER, WAR AND PEACE.......................................................................................................................................................................... 224

LEADERSHIP..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 225

THE ROLE OF ELITES.................................................................................................................................................................................... 226

ISOLATION........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 227

THE OUTSIDERS.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 229

STUDENT POWER IN THE MIDDLE AGES............................................................................................................................................. 230

ARE CRIMINALS MADE OR BORN?......................................................................................................................................................... 232

WHAT IS A HISTORICAL FACT?................................................................................................................................................................ 234

MORALITY AND FOREIGN POLICY......................................................................................................................................................... 237

HUMAN MIGRATION..................................................................................................................................................................................... 238

INTERGRATING RISK ANALYSIS INTO PUBLIC POLICYMAKING.............................................................................................. 239

EDUCATION AND POLITICAL TOLERANCE........................................................................................................................................ 240

A TECHNOLOGY OF BEHAVIOR............................................................................................................................................................... 241

 


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О.А.КОЛЫХАЛОВА, В.В.МАКАЕВ АНГЛИЙСКИЙ

О.А.КОЛЫХАЛОВА, В.В.МАКАЕВ АНГЛИЙСКИЙ

ББК 81.2 Англ. К 60

ББК 81.2 Англ. К 60

ОТ АВТОРОВ Учебник «Английский язык» адресован в первую очередь сту­дентам и аспирантам гуманитарных специальностей высших учеб­ных заведений, студентам факультетов иностранных языков, а также всем тем,…

ОТ АВТОРОВ Учебник «Английский язык» адресован в первую очередь сту­дентам и аспирантам гуманитарных специальностей высших учеб­ных заведений, студентам факультетов иностранных языков, а также всем тем,…

PREFACE The textbook «English for

PREFACE The textbook «English for

BOOK I PART I

BOOK I PART I

Summer, 1959, also quoted in The

Summer, 1959, also quoted in The

Compare Holmes' position on this issue with that of

Compare Holmes' position on this issue with that of

To be understood, he depended upon his readers' background knowledge of the criminal world (presumably acquired second-hand, from reading and seeing «thrillers»)

To be understood, he depended upon his readers' background knowledge of the criminal world (presumably acquired second-hand, from reading and seeing «thrillers»)

Underline ten difficult words in one of the texts in this book as you read it, and before you reach for a dictionary

Underline ten difficult words in one of the texts in this book as you read it, and before you reach for a dictionary

Pronunciation — Look up the pronunciation of the fol­lowing words: (a

Pronunciation — Look up the pronunciation of the fol­lowing words: (a

Learning how to get most out of a

Learning how to get most out of a

Dictionaries». Journal of the Dictionary

Dictionaries». Journal of the Dictionary

He told a funny story, (neutral)

He told a funny story, (neutral)

Which of the following combinations may also be found in words used in

Which of the following combinations may also be found in words used in

Productive word parts — Chaining

Productive word parts — Chaining

In addition to the Internal Context of

In addition to the Internal Context of

Psychologists also study normal behavior, but they are particularly concerned with behavior that is deviant

Psychologists also study normal behavior, but they are particularly concerned with behavior that is deviant

Many words sound alike but are spelled very differently

Many words sound alike but are spelled very differently

Position the following set of words on the continuum going from too little (insufficient) to too much (superfluous)

Position the following set of words on the continuum going from too little (insufficient) to too much (superfluous)

Esquire (Esq.) Mrs. actress princess director lass lad soldier waiter chairman astronaut

Esquire (Esq.) Mrs. actress princess director lass lad soldier waiter chairman astronaut

Place the following words or expressions on a continuum from

Place the following words or expressions on a continuum from

The Military 1. Suggest what a writer wants to express by each of the following: the brow of a hill, the mouth of a river;…

The Military 1. Suggest what a writer wants to express by each of the following: the brow of a hill, the mouth of a river;…

Contradict counterproposal, countersue depress, depend, decentralize demigod, demitasse diameter, diagram, dichotomy dismiss, digress, diversion dysfunction, dyslexia enable, enlarge epidemic, epidermis, epilogue equivalent, equilateral euthanasia, eugenic,…

Contradict counterproposal, countersue depress, depend, decentralize demigod, demitasse diameter, diagram, dichotomy dismiss, digress, diversion dysfunction, dyslexia enable, enlarge epidemic, epidermis, epilogue equivalent, equilateral euthanasia, eugenic,…

В : NUMERICAL PREFIXES USED IN

В : NUMERICAL PREFIXES USED IN

D: STEMS/ROOTS Stem/Root

D: STEMS/ROOTS Stem/Root

Judge speak hand memory measure send move form, shape death name, law new study of correct, traight felling, agent, reaction anarchist, archetype animal, inanimate anthropology,…

Judge speak hand memory measure send move form, shape death name, law new study of correct, traight felling, agent, reaction anarchist, archetype animal, inanimate anthropology,…

МЕТОДИКА ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

МЕТОДИКА ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

ped, pod pel, pulse pend philo phobe phone photo pone, pose port press psycho rupt scribe,script sequ, secut simi solu, solv soph spec, spic struct…

ped, pod pel, pulse pend philo phobe phone photo pone, pose port press psycho rupt scribe,script sequ, secut simi solu, solv soph spec, spic struct…

SUFFIXES E. Suffixes used to form (and sinify) the various parts of speech

SUFFIXES E. Suffixes used to form (and sinify) the various parts of speech

Note that this abbreviation (e

Note that this abbreviation (e

Rarely capitalized; no space between; preceded and followed by comma

Rarely capitalized; no space between; preceded and followed by comma

Note that this abbreviation saves but one character

Note that this abbreviation saves but one character

Contrast Compare Contrast

Contrast Compare Contrast

VERBS analyze argue clarify compare contrast contradict contribute define demonstrate describe differentiate between distinguish between discuss emphasize enumerate evaluate examine exemplify explain express identify illustrate…

VERBS analyze argue clarify compare contrast contradict contribute define demonstrate describe differentiate between distinguish between discuss emphasize enumerate evaluate examine exemplify explain express identify illustrate…

В battery bore benefit bread biology bubble bishop bulk bomb bureaucracy

В battery bore benefit bread biology bubble bishop bulk bomb bureaucracy

D dissolve diverge data defect deflect distinct diverse debate defer degenerate distort divine decade deficient degrade denote derive devise diffuse discrete dispute drama dynamic distribute…

D dissolve diverge data defect deflect distinct diverse debate defer degenerate distort divine decade deficient degrade denote derive devise diffuse discrete dispute drama dynamic distribute…

Exclude expel export execute expert expose

Exclude expel export execute expert expose

L label league leisure litigate luxury laboratory lecture lens locate labour legal liable locomotion

L label league leisure litigate luxury laboratory lecture lens locate labour legal liable locomotion

L label league leisure litigate luxury laboratory lecture lens locate labour legal liable locomotion

L label league leisure litigate luxury laboratory lecture lens locate labour legal liable locomotion

S saint schedule secure series sift skeleton source speculate stationary stipulate subdivide subsidize superficial supreme switch sanction scheme seek sex signify sketch spatial sphere statistic…

S saint schedule secure series sift skeleton source speculate stationary stipulate subdivide subsidize superficial supreme switch sanction scheme seek sex signify sketch spatial sphere statistic…

PART II AN APPROACH TO READING

PART II AN APPROACH TO READING

The last sentence, although phrased as a question, actually serves to emphasize the writer's outrage and to make clear his intention to get his reader…

The last sentence, although phrased as a question, actually serves to emphasize the writer's outrage and to make clear his intention to get his reader…

Business had been slow since the stock market crash

Business had been slow since the stock market crash

Pattern 1 (Noun + Verb): The man teaches

Pattern 1 (Noun + Verb): The man teaches

Example: That professor teaches

Example: That professor teaches

It makes everyone happy. Rewrite

It makes everyone happy. Rewrite

A beekeeper brought twenty ferocious

A beekeeper brought twenty ferocious

This fact is obvious. Poets use words figuratively

This fact is obvious. Poets use words figuratively

Complete each of the following sentences with a noun by one of the subordinators given

Complete each of the following sentences with a noun by one of the subordinators given

John wondered ________. (2) Mary told me _______

John wondered ________. (2) Mary told me _______
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25.04.2018