Meeting 4:
Robert Hallet: `Why do we still dice with death'
Task 1:Reading
Read the jumbled fragments and put them in order.
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
G |
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A
The kind of information that tends to be relied on both by the smoker and seat-belt non-wearer is anecdotal, based on personal experience. All smokers seem to have an Uncle Bill or an Aunt Mabel who has been smoking cigarettes since they were twelve, lived to 90, and died because they fell down the stairs. And if they don't have such an Aunt or Uncle, they are certain to have heard of someone who has. Similarly, many motorists, seem to have heard of people who have been killed if they had been wearing seatbelts.
B
The main paradox is why people consistently do things which are known to be very hazardous. Two good examples of this are smoking and not wearing seatbelts: addiction helps keep smokers smoking; and whether to wear a seatbelt is only partly affected by safety considerations. Taken together, both these examples underline elements of how people reach decisions about their health. Understanding this process is crucial. We can then more effectively change public attitudes to hazardous voluntary activities like smoking.
C
If we give smokers the real figures, will it alter their views on dangers of smoking? Unfortunately not. Many of the `real figures' are in the form of probabilistic estimates, and evidence shows that people are very bad at processing and understanding this kind of information. Giving people information like that contained in Table 1 should alter their behaviour but it is unlikely to.
D
Smokers run double the risk of contracting heart disease, several times the risk of suffering from chronic bronchitis and at least 25 times the risk of lung cancer, as compared to non-smokers. Despite extensive press campaigns ( especially in the past 20 years), which have regularly told smokers and car drivers the grave risks they are running, the number of smokers and seat-belt wearers has remained much the same. Although the number of deaths from road accidents and smoking are well publicised, they have aroused little public interest.
E
So a mass-media approach may work. But it needs to be carefully controlled. Overall, the new awareness of the problem of health decisions and behaviour is at least a more hopeful sign for the future.
F
Reliance on this kind of evidence and not being able to cope with `probabilistic' data form the two main foundation stones of people's assessment of risk. A third is reliance on press-publicised dangers and causes of death. American psychologists have shown that people overestimate the frequency (and therefore the danger) of the dramatic causes of death (like aeroplane crashes) and underestimate the undramatic, unpublicised killers (like smoking) which actually take a greater toll of life.
G
If asked, `What are health decisions?', most of us would answer in terms of hospitals, doctors and pills. Yet we are all making a whole range of decisions about our health which go beyond this limited area; for example, whether or not to smoke, exercise, drive a motorbike, drink alcohol regularly. The ways we reach decisions and form attitudes about our health are only just beginning to be understood.
H
What is needed is some way of changing people's evaluations and attitudes to the risks of certain activities like smoking. What can be done? The `rational' approach of giving people the `facts and figures' seems ineffective. But the evidence shows that when people are frightened, they are more likely to change their estimates of the dangers involved in smoking or not wearing seatbelts. Press and television can do this very cost-effectively. Programmes like Dying for a Fag (a Thames TV programme) vividly showed the health hazards of smoking and may have increased the chances of people stopping smoking permanently.
Task 2: Reading Comprehension
Complete these statements by choosing the answer which you think fits best:
1. The subject under discussion in the article is
a. why people persist in running health risks.
b. why people fail to make health decisions
c. how people estimate the dangers of smoking
d. how to use the mass media for health decisions
2. The writer suggests that the main reason that people don't stop smoking is that
a. they tend to imitate friends and relations who smoke heavily.
b. they are unable to break the habit although they know the risks.
c. they are unaware of the degree of danger involved in smoking.
d. they don't accept the statistical evidence against smoking.
3. Publishing figures for health risks has been found to have little effect because people
a. found them difficult to interpret.
b. considered them to be exaggerated.
c. were too shocked to respond to them.
d. usually fail to read such reports.
4. A reason given for using the mass media to publicise health risks is that they
a. are known to be successful in changing people's behaviour.
b. can reach the widest cross-section of the population.
c. are the only really effective means of frightening people.
d. are an economical way to influence large numbers of people.
5. The most optimistic aspect of this article is the fact
a. the media are having an increasing effect in health education.
b. attention is being paid to how people assess health risks.
c. people are becoming more concerned about their own health.
d. precise figures are now available to underline health risks.
Task 3: Focus on register
Extract 1 Cyclists are not only healthy - they're smart. Bike riding is one of the most efficient ways of getting about. When comparing the energy expended with speed and distance covered, even the rustiest two-wheeler outstrips the humming bird, cheetah and jumbo jet. There are an estimated 14 million bikes in Britain - with 5 million of them gathering dust in garages. A pity, because bicycles are so versatile; as transport or for simple pleasure. While getting to work, a bicycle also gets you fit. For every half's hour pedalling a 150 lb person burns up 300 calories. The heart, lungs, back and leg muscles are strengthened - all while sitting down. Because the body is supported cycling is effective exercise. |
Extract 2 If you are feeling under the weather at the moment, a trifle sluggish, here's an opportunity to do something about it. A regular stint on our super Fitness Cycle will make all the difference, make you feel on top of the world. And you don't have to ride round the draughty streets at some unearthly hour when you know your friends and neighbours will not be about. For you may do the necessary in the privacy of your home. The Cycle is full size, the seat and handlebars re adjustable. It's tough enough to take the weight of a hefty fellow and it folds up neatly and slimly to be stored. Just think of the benefits. Your muscles will be toned up - not filled out, no worry about that. Your arms and legs become firmer, so does your tummy, thighs and hips.
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Extract 3 Cycling like any regular exercise, makes you fitter -even half an hour a day slowly but inexorably slims you, even if you don't or won't diet. But the doubters say that for town cyclists the health benefits are overweighed by the damage caused by the polluted air of the cities. As the cyclist pedals briskly, inhaling more deeply than, say a motorist, the damage will be that much more. Or so the argument goes. A recent article in The British Medical Journal dispels the theory. The concentration of carbon monoxide was measured in the bloodstream; on a calm day the percentage was a trivial 0.5 People living in the Outer Hebrides have shown as much. |
Look at the extracts and find words or phrases which mean the same as:
Clever (1)
Used up (1)
Bicycle (1)
Does better than (1)
Not very well (2)
Rather (2)
Slow-moving (2)
Period of work (2)
Inconvenient (2)
Big, strong, heavy (2)
Less important than (3)
Quickly (3)
Breathing in (3)
Disproves (3)
Unimportant (3)
Now complete these statements by choosing the answer which fits best:
1. Extract 1 points out that, as a form of transport, the bicycle is extremely
a. fast.
b. strongly built.
c. economical of energy.
d. up-to-the minute in fashion.
2. Extract 2 is aimed at the type of reader who
a. is dissatisfied with normal bikes.
b. has never ridden a normal bicycle.
c. is too overweight to ride a normal bike.
d. would not want to be seen on a normal bike.
3. Extract 3 is concerned with
a. the effects of pollution on cyclists.
b. common complaints suffered by cyclists.
c. fears about the possible bad effects of cycling.
d. the overall health benefits of vigorous cycling.