new proficiency gold course book unit


UNIT 14

A good read

Speaking

1) Read the following statement and discuss the question below.

`Books, art and music all contribute to the development of individual members of society.'

What do you think individuals can gain from:

Think of three benefits of each.

2)

1 How important are the following in your own life? Discuss the questions below.

Why are they important to you?

How are you involved in them?

Do you take an active part in any of them?

2 Choose two of the areas listed. Work out three arguments to persuade other to become involved in them.

Use of English

Paper 3, Part 5

1) Do you think that people will still be reading books in fifty years' time? Why/Why not?

Read the following texts on the lace of the book in modern society and decide what answer each of the writers would give to the question in Exercise 1.

Text 1

Frantic efforts are now being made to render the traditional book as `obsolete' as the stage play or the symphony orchestra. Small fortunes have been spent putting books on the Internet. The plug-in book is now being produced by Research and Development bureaucrats in media conglomerates. Books could be stored in the electronic spines of hand-held light-boxes. They could be loaded into photosensitive pages for carrying on trains and planes. But all those developments have encountered consumer resistance. People appear to find flickering screens tiring. They make eyes ache since the scanning pulses are in constant movement. The flicker is said to limit lateral vision and make speed-reading (and mistake spotting) difficult. The eye is also strained since the screen is brighter than ambient light. And all screens need electronic power.

What these souls are struggling to do is merely to reinvent what Caxton discovered half a millennium ago. It is called a book. Technologists dislike books because they are `low tech', yet the market loves them. The book needs no power supply and created no radio interference. It is cheap, small and portable, usable on the beach, while walking or curled up in bed. It is virtually indestructible. A book can be read fast or slow at the flick of a finger. It can be dog-eared, ripped up, passed around and shelved for instant and easy retrieval. A row of books is a joy to behold. This object is, in short, a technical and aesthetic masterpiece. Had the Internet been around for years and had I invented printing on paper, I would be hailed as a genius.

Text 2

The book seems as obvious a candidate for redundancy now as it has since the middle of the 20th century. But we should be aware of pessimism's poor record. People previously assumed that the cinema and television would finish off reading, yet the book, to an extraordinary degree, has learned to coexist its rivals.

Most Hollywood projects derive from novels: often trashy ones, it is true, but also the classics. And not only do movies and television series descend from books but, almost routinely, they return to them as nearly every screen product has its tie-in book. It all suggests that the desire of the viewer to follow the visual experience with a print experience is even more tenacious than ever.

The threat to the conventional book in the 21st century is, though, subtly different. Where the first challengers were alternative ways of reading: CD Rom, computer disk, the Internet, recorded books. The smart money would bet that the standard home or library reference book is going the way of the dodo simply because the new technology can make information more visually appealing. But, with regard to fiction, it seems a reasonable assumption that the portability of the standard book, and the aesthetic affection that established readers still have for it as a product, will confound pessimism in the future.

3) Read the text again and answer questions 1-4 with a word or short phrase. You do not need to write complete sentences.

4) In a paragraph of between 50 and 70 words, summarise in your own words as far as possible, the reasons given in the texts for why books have remained popular up to the present and are likely to survive into the future.

5) The writer of text 1 says that the main advantage of the new technology is that it makes information `more visually appealing'.

Language Focus: Vocabulary

Paper 1, Part 1

1) Read the text and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap.

Youth's guilty secret - they love books

In today's youth culture, books are seen as boring and old-fashioned (1) …………… to a recent study which claims that children only spend fifteen minutes a day reading, and are (2) …………… to the television or computer screen for the rest of their leisure time.

However, this is totally at (3) …………… with other research, which suggests that children are reading more books than ever before. Although technology has been accused of destroying their desire to read, it appears that using the Internet actually stimulates children to look for more information about the things they come (4) …………… there, and the easiest way for them to do this is by reading books.

It is true that children often try to (5) …………… their enjoyment of books on case they are seen as `soft'. But it does in fact seem possible that (6) …………… lowering standard of literacy, computers and television have actually contributed to raising them.

1 A due B according C referring D owing

2 A glued B fixed C attached D stuck

3 A differences B opposition C variation D odds

4 A over B across C to D through

5 A bottle up B cover up C blot out D put away

6 A rather than B as well as C in spite of D more than

2) In the light of what you have read and talked about in this unit so far, discuss the two statements below and decide which you agree with.

`The development of technology and mass media has given young people today a far greater awareness and understanding of culture than their parents.'

`People spend so much more time nowadays involved in passive leisure pursuits such as watching television and playing computer games that they have far less interest in cultural activities than their parents and grandparents.'

3) Do you prefer reading short stories or full-length novels? Why?

What different challenges do you think the two types of writing offer authors?

4) Read the following statement. How far do you agree with it?

`The ability to see our life as a narrative with a beginning, middle and end is one of the things that distinguishes humans from other living creatures.'

Exam Focus

Paper 4, Part 4

In Paper 4, Part 4 you have to listen to a conversation with two main speakers and match statements to one or both of the two speakers. (You will not be given any statement which do not match either speaker.) You need to identify the speakers' opinions and whether they agree or disagree.

Here is a procedure to follow for this task.

1) You will hear two writers of fiction, Philip and Angela, discussing their work. For questions 1-6, decide whether the opinions are expressed by only one of the speakers, or whether the speakers agree.

Write P for Philip,

A for Angela,

or B for Both, where they agree.

  • As a writer, I feel at ease with the full-length novel.

  • Most writers begin by writing short stories.

  • I did not return to short stories once I'd written a full-length novel.

  • People build up awareness of stories from their own lives.

  • Only humans, have the ability to tell themselves stories.

  • To be successful, a short story needs a definite ending.

2) To analyse your answers, refer to the extracts from the tapescript on page 239.

3) Say it again

Re-express the following sentences using the word given, without changing the meaning.

1 They're a good tool, whether or not people do a writing programme. even

2 They seldom or never go back to the short story. ever

3 I'm not talking about thinking about it consciously. conscious

4 It's extremely short on plot. doesn't

Exam Strategy

  • Remember that the second speaker may use pronouns, e.g. this/it to refer back to what the first speaker has said.

  • The key expressions from each speaker may come quite closely together. These may be actual opinions or expressions of agreement or disagreement, which will probably be implied rather than direct, e.g. Are you sure? Often suggests disagreement.

Language Focus: Grammar

Comparisons

1) The following sentences show different ways of making comparisons. Complete the sentences using one word in each gap.

  • Grammar reference p. 226

2) Use of English: Paper 3, Part 4

Complete the second sentence with three to eight words so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given.

(There transformations all involve different ways of expressing comparison. If necessary, refer to the Grammar reference on page 226 to help you.)

1 The original version of the film was superior in every way to the new version. nothing

The new version of the film …………………………………………………… the original version.

2 The first time I went I enjoyed myself more than I did on the second visit. good

I didn't …………………………………………………… on the second visit as I had done on the first.

3 The critics predicted the musical would be very successful, but in fact it didn't do very well. hit

The musical wasn't as …………………………………………………… the critics had predicted it

would be.

4 Like many other people, she was impressed by the sculpture. did

She thought the sculpture impressive, …………………………………………………… other people.

5 She greeted him less enthusiastically than he had expected. warm

She …………………………………………………… a greeting as he had expected.

6 The President had thought the public would be more affected by the news. of

The news …………………………………………………… impression on the public than the President had expected.

7 Books are still more portable than the majority of computers. around

At present, few …………………………………………………… easily as books.

8 It was fortunate that more workers kept their jobs than had been expected. laid

Fortunately, not so many workers …………………………………………………… had been feared.

Reading

For Paper 2 of the Proficiency exam, you may choose to study a set text.

In this section you will study a short story in detail. The same principles of analysis can be applied to the longer set text that you choose to study.

1) You are going to read a short story called Machete by the Australian writer, Robert Drewe. The story is set in a newly built suburb on the outskirts of an Australian town. It tells how a man finds a machete on his front lawn one morning when he goes to collect his newspaper from the mail box at the end of his driveway. Before you read the story, look at the illustration and read the definition of a machete below. Then discuss these questions.

Machete n [C] large knife with a broad heavy blade, used as a weapon or a tool

2) Read the story to find out what happened.

MACHETE

1 Ai eight this morning there was a machete lying on the lawn, flat in the middle of my front yard. It gave me a jolt. It's hard to describe the feeling of seeing a machete lying on your lawn when you're picking up the morning paper. I don't own a machete. It's not a common garden tool around here. In my mind a machete is a weapon of foreign guerrillas. Rural terrorists. I associate machetes with a random slaughter of innocent villagers, the massacre of peasant farmers who backed the wrong party.

2 Well, I picked it up - my heart beating faster - and hefted it in my hand. The blade was heavy and sharp; it was in good order. All the while I couldn't believe it was there in my yard, in my hand. I was peering around to see if the machete's owner was about to appear but there were only the usual sleepy-looking suburban houses coming to life. People were backing cars out of heir driveways and leaving for work; children were setting off for school; a woman down the street watered her garden. In a moment I began to feel self-conscious standing there in my suit and tie all set for work, with the rolled newspaper in one hand and a machete in the other.

3 Belleview is a new suburb. Gillian and I moved here six months ago but we don't know anyone yet. These sandy, gravelly plains on the outskirts of the city were never thickly vegetated, and the developers bulldozed those trees and bushes, mainly spindly acacias, which had persevered. The residents are just starting to establish their lawns and gardens, but it's a battle in the sand. Everything blows away, and when it rains your topsoil washes half a kilometer down the road. What I'm saying is that it's not tropical rainforest or anything. A rake, a spade and a pair of secateurs will see you through. There is no need for slashing and hacking

4 So I was standing in the front yard holding the machete and thinking all sorts of imaginative things. How a machete came to get there in the middle of the night, and so forth. It's a long drive to work, to the bank, and I knew the highway would be jammed already, but now I'd found the machete I couldn't just leave.

5 My mind was whirling. Gillian left work three weeks ago, in her seventh month pregnancy, and she would be at home, alone, all day. It was our first baby and she was in a state just being pregnant, without me mentioning the machete.

6 So whose machete was it? I didn't know the neighbours, only that the other young couple in the right worked long hours and that the fellow on the left kept Rottweilers. His wife was Filipino and stayed indoors all the time. Her face peeping through the curtains looked wistful. We'd heard him shouting at night. My guess was that a Rottweiler owner was more likely to own a machete, and to care for it so well.

7 From where I was standing with the machete I lined up with the front door of the Rottweiler residence. There was only the low paling fence separating us. Someone could have thrown the machete from the front door to where I stood if they were impelled to do that. But it was hard to think of a reason why.

8 I couldn't see myself going next door past all the Rottweilers and asking “Excuse me, did you leave your machete in my yard? When you were trespassing last night?” By then, it was well after eight and my one clear thought was not to frighten Gillian with any quirkiness. Things were making her weepy and anxious lately: all those children on TV with rare diseases, the hole in the ozone layer, fluoride in the water. I wanted to keep her serene. I took the machete around to the back of the house. I pushed it hard into the sandy flowerbed until only the handle stuck up, and that was hidden by shadow. Then I got into the card, drove to work and forgot about it.

9 But tonight, as I was driving home past the Hardware Barn I remembered it. The strange feeling cam back and I speeded up. These nights the sun sets well before five and our end of the street was in darkness when I pulled up. I left the headlights on and ran to the back of the garage.

10 There is something more alarming than the presence of a machete. The absence of a machete.

3)

1 Answer the following comprehension questions about the story on page 201.

2 How do the last two lines make you feel? What do you think my have happened to the machete?

4) The writer uses the following techniques to build up suspense, and a sense of unease and foreboding in the story.

The following exercises focus on those techniques.

1 Number the events below in the order that they are described in the story (not the order in which they actually happened). How does the sequence in which the information is revealed help to build up suspense?

The narrator finds the machete lying on the lawn.

He can't find the machete.

His wife leaves her job because she is going to have a baby.

He goes to work.

He hides the machete.

He and his wife move to the suburb.

People go to work as usual.

2 What is the effect of the first sentence? How does it contribute to the suspense in the story?

3 Look at the following sentences and find how the same information is expressed in the text. What associations does the writer set up through his inclusion of these details? What are the possible implications?

5) In the exam you may need to refer to the writer's use of language to explain how he creates an effect.

1 Answer the following questions, which focus on how the choice of language and use of stylistic devices contribute to creating a sense of unease.