Új Szó, 2008. október (61. évfolyam, 227-253. szám)

2008-10-23 / 246. szám, csütörtök

www.ujszo.com ÚJ SZÓ 2008. OKTÓBER 23. Angol nyelvlecke 27 i Kedves Olvasó! Az Új Szó és a British Council együttműködésében hat héten keresztül - a SME napilapban korábban sikeresen megjelentetett - angol nyelvtanfolyamot közlünk 12 leckében. Hetente kétszer - csütörtökön és szombaton - ezen az oldalon érdekes témákat talál, melyek segítségével nemcsak szókincsét bővítheti, hanem angol nyelvtani tudását is tökéletesítheti. Minden lecke egy kvízkérdést is tartalmaz. Ha 2008. május 29-ig a quiz@britishcouncil.sk e mail címre elküldi mind a 12 helyes választ, átruházható tanfolyamot illetve nyelvtankönyveket és szótárakat nyerhet. A játékot 2008. június 2-án értékeljük ki. A játékszabályokról és a díjakról a www.britishcouncil.sh címen talál további információkat. A tanfolyammal kapcsolatos véleményét, észrevételeit elküldheti a www.velemeny@ujszo.com címre. BRITISH COUNCIL LearnEn lish 11 Overpopulation by John Kati I come from the south of Eng­land, in the most densely-popu­lated comer of a small island, which, you might think, is full of people. (The UK as a whole has 2.4 people per hectare.) I have never gone hungry. The only time when I wish there were less people is on rush-hour trains. However, one of the most interesting findings of the census of 2001 was that a mil­lion people were missing. Or at least there were a million people less than the authorities expected. Should we be happy that we have more space and less mouths to feed? I don’t know As I start writing this article the world population (according to the Office of Population Re­search at Princeton University) stands at 6,315,850,431. Doom, version l In 1798 Robert Malthus wrote an essay which got economics the name of the dismal science. It was called “The Principle of Population”. He said that it was impossible for the number of people to increase, and even worse, it was impossible for the standard of living to rise. The argument went like this: 1. population naturally increases geometrically: 2,4,8,16... 2. food production increases arithmetically 2,4,6,8... 3. so, population will be con­trolled by lack of food, the same as it is for animals. Some people will always be starving. A lot of people disliked Malthus’ point of view. Often, because it seemed to go against the idea of progress, which was so important for other social theories of the time. Anyway, the experience of the next two centuries shows that some­thing must be wrong with the theory. In the 19th century world population rose from 1 to 1.7 billion. In the 20th, it in­creased to about 6 billion. Doom, version 2 In 1961, J.G. Ballard wrote a story called Billenium. It’s about a world where the popu­lation has gone on increasing at 3% a year to reach a figure of at least 20 billion, although the true number is kept secret. To make space for growing food, everyone lives in giant cities where the buildings are divided into little cubicles. A single person can have 4 square metres and a married couple six. Everyone has enough to eat, but life is cer­tainly very inconvenient. Peo­ple spend most of the time waiting in queues for the bath­room or anywhere else they want to go. Reality The real situation is not as bad as these alarming predic­tions. A very surprising and dramatic change is happening in the world, but it is not what Malthus or Ballard predicted. To understand the statistics, we need first to think about the two ways the number of people can go up. The Fertility Rate The most obvious way to increase population is for more babies to be bom. If the popula­tion is exactly constant, the average woman has 2.1 children. This number is called the “re­placement rate”. These rates are going down very fast. The peak was in the period 1965-75 at 4.9, now the rate for the world as a whole is 2.8. However, there is still a big difference between the developed countries, where the rate is 1.6 and poor countries where it is 3. To quote some ex­treme examples, in Italy the fig­ure is 1.2 and in Zambia 5.6 Life expectancy The other reason why there are more people now is that we live longer. This figure also shows a dramatic change. The people bom in 1950 could expect, on average, to live 45 years. Now the world life expectancy at birth is 65, and the United Nations predicts this will increase to 76 in the next 50 years. Predictions of doom Malthus and Ballard were still right about some things. The dismal picture painted by Malthus is still true in poor coun­tries where 18 million people starve every year, and more than Vocabui Vocabulary gap fill. Now use the 5 words/phrases to fill the gaps in the sentences below: 1. Women usually have a slightly higher.................... than men. 2. Fewer women of .................... age are married. 3. The number of people still living in poverty in indu­strialized societies is .......... 4. People with a university degree usually have a better ....................than those who don’t. 5. There was a .............. in the amount of electricity used during the half-time inter­val of the Cup Final. a billion people don't have a sup­ply of clean drinking water. Bal­lard is right about the trend towards city life. By the year 2006, the United Nations predicts that more than 50% of people will live in cities. City life in the developed world At least in the rich countries, the move into cities seems to be connected with falling fertility rates. It is more expensive to have a child in the city, and chil­dren are less useful as workers. Women receive a better educa­tion and are able to work - so they have more to lose by becoming mothers. City life seems to encourage individu­alism - people become more interested in getting an education and a career. They marry later in life, and divorce more often, so producing smaller families. At the moment, it seems quite possible that the same pat­tern will be repeated everywhere. One UN forecast now foresees a world population of about 5 bil­lion in 2100. But, the more time you spend looking at predictions the more you realise that the human race is a surprising phe­nomenon. It looks like we will have a clearer idea of what will happen in ten or twenty years time when the present generation of parents moves beyond child-bearing age. Now there are 6,318,042,422 people. Reading Comprehension Put the words below in order to make correct sentences about the text. 1. in a densely populated / Despite living / short of food / the writer / has never been / part of England /. 2. been wrong / would never be able / that the human population / seems to have / Malthus’ prediction / to feed itself /. 3. in two hundred / six times / population / The world / has increased / years. 4. of the human / to replace itself / The ability / popula­tion / has been declining. 5. in cities /of us / now live / which lowers / Over half / the birth rate. msm * 5 words/phrases from the text 1. standard of living: how much money and comfort you have 2. alarming: surprising and frightening 3. peak: high point 4. life expectancy: how long you will live 5. child-bearing: able to have a baby RftPtpo $< 2learn English 2.3. Phms«l Verb3 ^ fljp N\) H€T, ZEN’ TUAN ON, TONE IN te ^ / PRof OUT ; (A RfiflRO, SWITCH OFF, CAIM »OWN g. WRKC UP.' Grammar Verbs followed by ‘ing’ or by ‘to + infinitive' (l) When one verb is followed by another, the second verb can either be an infinitive or an -ing form. Some verbs can be followed by only an infinitive, others by only an -ing form and some by both but with a change in meaning. To know which structure to use, you can consult a good dictionary but here are some common examples. Verb + infinitive I want to speak to the manager. She's learning to ride a horse. He offered to help us wash up. 'Want', 'bam' and ‘offer’ are followed by to + infinitive Other verbs in this group include: afford, agree, ask, choose, deride, expect, hope, prepare, promise, pretend, refuse, would like. Verb + ‘ing’ form I enjoy travelling. He admitted stealing the necklace. 1 don't mind waiting if you're busy. 'enjoy' 'steal' and 'mind' are followed by the ‘ing’ form Other verbs in this group include: avoid, consider, dislike, feel like, finish, give up, can’t help, practise, suggest. Verb + infinitive or ‘ing’ form with no change in meaning A few verbs can be followed by either an infinitive or the ‘ing’ form and the meaning does not change. I started to work here in 1994. I started working here in 1994. The meaning of these two sentences is the same. There aren’t many verbs that can take an infinitive or an ‘ing’ form with no change in meaning. ‘Begin’ and ‘continue’ are two more examples. There is also a group of verbs that can be followed by an infinitive or an ‘ing’ form with a change in meaning. These verbs will be covered in another section. Exercise Put the verbs in the sentences using either an infinitive or an ‘ing’form. There are 2 extra verbs. admit, fall, help, pay, smoke, steal, watch 1 She promised [1] me do my homework. 2 I don’t feel like [2] a film tonight. Shall we go for a meal instead? 3 He's giving up [3] at the moment so he’s a bit bad-tempered. 4 Snow began [4] and soon the entire town was covered. 5 Even though he broke the window he refused [5] for the damage. Quiz Question 11 Patron Saint of Scotland Asd oj "S ‘nej oj/Suijjej > ‘Supjouis f: ‘SuupieM z ‘djaq oj -x jeuiuieju '3}ei qpiq aqj siaMoj qoiqm ‘sapp ui oaij mou sn jo qeq jsao s ‘Suraqaap uaaq seq jpsq aoejdar oj uopejndod ueuinq aqi jo Aqjiqe aqx 'f ‘sieaA paipunq om) ui sauip xis pasearaui seq uopejndod p jiom aqx •£ ‘Suoim uaaq aaeq oj suiaas jjasji paaj oj ajqe aq laAau pjnoM uopejndod ueuinq aqq jeqj uopaipard .snqqew x ‘pooj jo poqs uaaq jaAau seq jajuM aqi ‘puejSua jo jjed parejndod Ajasuap e u; SutAij ajtdsaa T uoisuaqajduioa ‘jjead -g ‘Suiaij jo piepuejs -y ‘Suiuneje '£ ‘Suireaq-pjiqa x ‘Aauepadxa ajq t AjejnqeaoA Aa>) • uoiB3E|ndodjaAO Megrendelőlap Név:. Utca, házszám: Település:.....................................................Irányítószám:................................................... Telefonszám:.........................................E-mail:..................................................................... Utánvéttel megrendelem az angol nyelvtanfolyam egyes CD-it 49 koronáért (1,62 €) + postaköltség* CDI .......db CD II.......db CD III.......db Aláírás:.......................................................... Utánvéttel megrendelem mindhárom angol nyelvi CD-t, összesen 147 koronáért (4,87 €) + postaköltség* *1 és 2db angol nyelvi CD megrendelése esetén a postaköltség 40 korona (1,32 €), 3 és több CD esetében 80 korona (2,65 €). A kitöltött szelvényt küldje el a következő címre: Petit Press, a.s., edičné oddelenie; Lazaretská 12,814 64 Bratislava, vagy a 02/59 233 339-es faxszámra. BRITISH COUNCIL Fedezze fel Nagy-Britanniát a Brit Központokban! Ha érdeklődik az angol nyelv tanítása vagy tanulása iránt, szívesen olvas brit irodalmat, érdeklik a legújabb trendek, látogasson el pozsonyi központunkba vagy a kassai, besztercebányai vagy a nyitrai Brit Központba. Könyv- és folyóiratgyűjteményünk, elektronikus források tárháza valamint készséges alkalmazottaink várják önöket, hogy megtalálják azokat az információkat, melyekre szükségük van. Részletekért klikkeljen a www.britishcouncil.sk honlapra. British Council, Panská 17, Pozsony, info@britishcouncil.sk

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