Relative sanitation servicing National

Absolute alleviation Domestic malnutrition

Changes in Attitudes to War

One area in which great changes occurred in the twentieth century is in the public attitude to war and peace. The vocabulary in which war is spoken about has ceased to be one of courage, patriotism and pride, and has instead become one of failure or of unimaginable disaster. The ‘War Office’ has in general become the ‘Ministry of Defence’; the greatest destruc­tive weapons ever invented have become ‘deterrents’. Most people went out of the 20^th century with a view of the military ‘virtues’, of the place of war in a civilised society, fundamentally different from that of the nineteenth century and earlier. The inventor of dynamite at the end of the nineteenth century believed that his invention would outlaw war, since the devastation it could produce would make any major outbreak destructive beyond imagination. After 1918 the same view was held about aerial warfare. My childhood was dominated by the conviction that a major war would end up wiping out the cities of the industrial world. Since 1945, the possibility of nuclear annihilation has seemed to make war between the great powers an act of collective suicide. These factors alone have contributed to a revulsion against large-scale military operations among thinking people in all nations - though the world is unquestionably still full of national, ethnic and political causes whose supporters see a resort to bullets and bombs as the only means of gaining their ends.

(a) loyalty to your own country

(b) the act of killing yourself deliberately

(c) ways of discouraging people from doing something because of the negative

results

(d) achieving their aims

(e) most important political powers (used about the USA and the Soviet Union

from the 1940s to 1990s)

(f) feeling of total disgust towards

(g) use something, especially something bad, as a means of achieving something

(h) total destruction by nuclear weapons

(i) movements, organisations

(j) fighting a war using airplanes

(k) make war illegal or impossible

5.8. Put each of the following words in its correct place in the sentences below.

1. The figure of a country’s Gross ____ Product will be larger than that for its Gross _____ Product.

2. In countries where food is scarce, ______ is inevitably a major problem.

3. Using overseas aid for debt ______ does not directly help any people who are suffering through poverty.

4. The amount of money earned by someone suffering from _____ poverty will be greater in a rich area than in a poor area, whereas ____ poverty does not take account of a person’s immediate environment.

5. The Child Poverty Action Group does all it can for the ____ of poverty among children in the United Kingdom.

6. Temporary refugee camps usually have rather poor _____ facilities.

5.9. Read the sentences below containing the metaphors of warfare and some expressions relating to poverty. Explain their meanings in English and think of any similar Russian expressions.

1. The government is waging war on drunken driving.

2. Paparazzi are besieging the Princess’s home.

3. A major advertising campaign was planned to launch a new cosmetics range.

4. The Brazilian football team routed all the others in the World Cup.

5. The companies are battling to win market supremacy.

6. We have a major fight on our hands if we are to save the company from bankruptcy.

7. It’s time to rally the troops and get them to do some overtime.

8. A lot of artists who only became famous after their deaths spent their lifetimes in penury.

9. It’s a very poor country – over 60% of the population live on /below the breadline.

10. The charity’s main aim is to improve healthcare in impoverished areas of the world.

11. Everywhere in the city you see destitute people living in shop doorways or under bridges.

12. Unfortunately, the number of deprived children in the world is growing, even in so-called rich countries.

13. When we were first married, we were living from hand to mouth.

14. When we were children, money was always tight.

ACQUIRING COMMUNICATION SKILLS

5.10. a) For a long time, man has been taking a head-in-the-sand approach, eagerly accepting certain myths about environmental and demographic problems. Comment on the following myths. Think of other myths of the kind.

Myth 1: Wars, disease, and natural disasters will control population surplus.

Myth 2: Technology and oceans will feed the world.

Myth 3: Man is only using a fraction of the land.

b) Read the facts below and see how they destroy the myths above.

Myth 1:

Fact: In five years of terrible war, population of North and South Vietnam grew by more than 3 million.

Fact: A giant tidal wave killed more than 500,000 in East Pakistan in 1970, but this number was replaced in just 35 days.

Fact: Improved healthcare and modern medicines have lengthened western man’s life-span by two decades since 1900.

Myth 2:

Fact: Green revolution is shot in the arm, but population growth is neutralizing food production giants.

Fact: Oceans are 90% biological deserts, with other 10% in danger of being over-exploited.

Myth 3:

Fact: Much of the land is too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry for agriculture and human habitation.

5.11. Work with a partner and answer the questions about being eco- friendly.

1. Why do environmentalists say we should avoid spray cans?

2. Why do greens favour organic farming and using unleaded petrol?

3. Why do environmentalists encourage us to use recycled paper and bottle banks? How do Russians take part in the recycling process?

4. What are other methods of environmental protection that greens favour? Do you favour such methods? Why?

5.12. Look at the pictures. Which of these environmental problems would effect you most if they occurred in the area you live? What action could you take as an individual to deal with the problems?

	5.13. a) Work with a partner. Read the text about global warming and changing climate. Think about possible consequences of these processes and discuss them in details with your partner.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-27