1 LM-1230 Oral Communication I Readings Booklet
2 Contents Symbols for Phonetic Transcription in the Oral Courses Section................................................... 3 Oral Evaluation Scale for Exams.............................................................................................................. 6 Oral Evaluation Scale for Projects............................................................................................................ 8 ORAL EXAM EVALUATION FORM................................................................................................... 10 PROJECT EVALUATION FORM ..........................................................................................................11 Public Speaking Skills ......................................................................................................................... 12 Successful Group Projects ................................................................................................................. 15 Part I: Health Issues ................................................................................................................................ 21 A User’s Guide To Good Health At Every Age ................................................................................. 22 The Oldest Old: A Look at Centenarians .......................................................................................... 28 Sugar vs Fat.......................................................................................................................................... 32 Part II: The Environment ........................................................................................................................ 35 The Story of Stuff.................................................................................................................................. 36 Top 10 Countries Killing the Planet ................................................................................................... 42 Plastic Disaster: An Ocean Pollution Documentary ............................................................................... 46 Longline Fishery in Costa Rica Kills Thousands of Sea Turtles and Sharks.............................. 51 Costa Rica’s Pineapple Boom Unhealthy, Warn Experts............................................................... 54
Symbols for Phonetic Transcript A B C Symbol IPA Description2 IPA Nam /ə/ Mid central vowel Schwa /ʌ/ Open mid back unrounded vowel Turned V /i/ Close front unrounded vowel Lower-case I /ɪ/ Near-close near-front unrounded vowel Small capital I /ɛ/ Open-mid front unrounded vowel Epsilon /æ/ Near-open front unrounded vowel Ash /ɑ/ Open back unrounded vowel Script a /ɔ/ Open-mid back rounded vowel Open o /ʊ/ Near-close near-back rounded vowel Upsilon /u/ High back rounded vowel Lower-case u /eɪ/ 5 /ɑɪ/ /oʊ/ /ɑʊ/ /ɔɪ/ /ɚ/ /ɝ/ 1 Approved in session CCO-007-2022 of the Oral Courses Section of the School of Modern Lang 2 Columns B y C present the International Phonetic Association’s (IPA) (1) description of the soun description or name for diphthongs and rhotic vowels. Visit the following IPA websites for more in https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/IPAcharts/inter_chart_2018/IPA_2018.html http 3 Column D presents other names that instructors in the Oral Courses Section have traditionally the IPA is encouraged. 4 Column E presents sample words containing the sound at stake in initial, medial, and final posi phonetic transcription. 5 See the IPA Handbook, pp.42-43 for more information on English diphthongs.
3 tion in the Oral Courses Section1 D E me Other Name(s)3 Sample Words4 Unstressed schwa above, photograph, sofa Stressed schwa, Caret us, come Tense or long i eat, need, she I Lax or short i is, give any, bed Diagraph apple, bad Latin a arm, hot Open o all, song, draw Lax u, short u good, should Tense or long u ooh, food, do Diphthong eɪ eight, same, way Diphthong ɑɪ ice, five, my Diphthong oʊ old, boat, toe Diphthong ɑʊ out, down, now Diphthong ɔɪ oil, avoid, boy Schwar, unstressed schwa plus /r/ butterfly, mirror Stressed schwa plus /r/ early, bird, her guages, dated February 28, 2022. nd represented with each symbol, and (2) name of the symbol. The IPA does not provide any nformation: s://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/sites/default/files/phonsymbol.pdf used to talk about these symbols and the sounds they represent. Use of the name provided by tion (when applicable). For diacritic and suprasegmental symbols, sample words are provided in
A B C Symbol IPA Description IPA Nam /p/ Voiceless bilabial plosive6 Lower-case P /b/ Voiced bilabial plosive Lower-case B /t/ Voiceless alveolar plosive Lower-case T /d/ Voiced alveolar plosive Lower-case D /k/ Voiceless velar plosive Lower-case K /g/ Voiced velar plosive Opentail G /ʔ/ Glottal plosive Glottal stop /f/ Voiceless labiodental fricative Lower-case F /v/ Voiced labiodental fricative Lower-case V /θ/ Voiceless dental7 fricative Theta /ð/ Voiced dental fricative Eth /s/ Voiceless alveolar fricative Lower-case S /z/ Voiced alveolar fricative Lower-case Z /ʃ/ Voiceless postalveolar8 fricative Esh /ʒ/ Voiced postalveolar fricative Ezh /tʃ/ Voiceless postalveolar affricate Tee-Esh /dʒ/ Voiced postalveolar affricate Dee-Ezh /m/ Voiced bilabial nasal Lower-case M /n/ Voiced alveolar nasal Lower-case N /ŋ/ Voiced velar nasal Eng /j/ Voiced palatal approximant Lower-case J /w/ Voiced labial-velar approximant Lower-case W /h/ Voiceless glottal fricative Lower-case H /l/ Voiced alveolar lateral approximant Lower-case L /r/ Voiced alveolar approximant Lower-case R 6 For all plosives, the term “stop” is traditionally used in the Oral Courses Section (e.g., voiceless 7 For Theta and Eth, the terms “voiceless interdental fricative” and “voiced interdental fricative” a 8 Note that descriptors such as “alveopalatal” and “palato-alveolar” are often used to talk about E
4 D E me Other Name(s) Sample Words Pee pen, paper, shop Bee be robot, job Tee ten, attend, ate D Dee day, adopt, bread K Kay cover, because, break Gee get, target, flag Gelded question mark cotton, mountain, uhoh Eff photo, before, laugh V Vee very, convince, live think, birthday, health this, other, bathe Es scene, lesson, face Zee zoom, cousin, use show, social, cash genre, usual, beige Voiceless affricate child, future, speech Voiced affricate gym, danger, age M Bilabial nasal media, compare, come Alveolar nasal news, enter, campaign Velar n angry, sing, going Yod young, unusual W Double u weak, always Aitch high, ahead El, lateral liquid life, salad, bill R Ar, central liquid red, sorry, are s bilabial stop). re traditionally used in the Oral Courses Section. Esh, Ezh, and the affricate sounds.
A B C Symbol IPA Description IPA Nam / ɾ / Voiced alveolar tap Fish-hook R ʰ Aspirated Superscript H ː Long Length mark ̥ Voiceless Under ring ˈ Primary stress Vertical stroke ˌ Secondary stress Vertical stroke (inferior) ̩ Syllabic Syllabicity ma ̚ No audible release Corner . Syllable break Period ͜ Linking (absence of break) Bottom tie bar [ ] Phonetic (detailed) transcription Square bracke / / Phonological/phonemic (broad) transcription Slashes or sla | Minor (foot) group Thick vertical ( ) Optional Round bracke 9 Aspiration of /p,k,t/ word-finally is optional, hence the parenthesis around the aspirat
5 D E me Other Name(s) Sample Words Tap or flap media, water, better Aspiration [pʰɑɪ] [əˈkʰɑʊnt] [kʌt ( ʰ )9 ] Lengthening [bɛːd] [tʰi:] Voiceless diacritic [tʰ̥ri:] e Primary stress mark [ˈpʰeɪ.pɚ] e Secondary stress mark /dɪˌskrɪ.mɪˈneɪ.ʃən/ rk Syllabic [eɪbl̩] [bʌʔn̩ ] Unreleased mark [nɑɪt̚] /dɪˌskrɪ.mɪˈneɪ.ʃən/ r Linking mark [fɔr͜əˈweɪ] “for a way” ets [ˈpʰɑɪ] ant lines Slant lines /pɑɪ/ line Vertical line [əm lʊkɪŋ | fɔr͜əˈweɪ] ets Parenthesis [ˈɛvədən(t)s] tion diacritic.
UNIVERSIDAD DE COSTA RICA Escuela de Lenguas Modernas LM-1230 Oral Communication I Oral Evaluation RATING 10 Excellent 9 Very good 8 Go Communicative skills 5% There is a very natural interaction and smooth flow of ideas. Plenty of successful communication exchanges show clear understanding of content and key concepts. There is a natural interaction and mostly smooth flow of ideas. Very good and sufficient communication exchanges show understanding of content and key concepts. There is inte that allows t ideas. Good and e communica exchanges understand some conte concepts. Content & Vocabulary 15% Excellent development of topic. Excellent usage of much relevant topicrelated vocabulary. Clear and sufficient explanations and examples. Very good development of the topic. Very good use of topic-related vocabulary. Very good number of explanations and examples. Good devel the topic. G topic-related vocabulary. number of explanation examples.
6 Scale for Exams 8 od 7 Adequate 6 Poor 5 or less Very poor / Not at all eraction the flow of enough ation show ing of ent and key There is adequate interaction and flow of ideas. Adequate and fair number of communication exchanges show some basic understanding of the topic. There is poor interaction and discontinuous flow of ideas. Poor communication exchanges hinder understanding of the topic. Student needs help to keep the conversation going. There is very poor or no interaction. Halting flow of ideas interferes with communication exchanges and makes understanding of the topic almost impossible. Student needs help to keep the conversation going or fails at doing so. opment of ood use of d Good s and Development of the topic is somewhat limited due to inadequate use of topic-related vocabulary and hardly enough explanations and examples. Very limited development of the topic. Basic and/ or insufficient vocabulary related to the topic. Limited number of explanations and/or examples. The content of the topic is insufficient or not developed at all. Very basic or little topic-related vocabulary. Very poor examples and/ or explanations.
Fluency & Pronunciation 50% Speech is very fluent and effortless. Almost no fillers are used which makes communication smooth and effective. Excellent pronunciation of most English sounds with emphasis on vowels/ consonants and topicrelated words, which facilitates understanding. Speech is usually fluent with some occasional lapses. Very few fillers are used, which do not interfere with communication. Very good pronunciation of most English sounds with emphasis on vowels/consonants and topic-related words, which makes meaning mostly clear. Speech is o but presents pauses. Some disco are used wh hinder communica Good pronu many Englis vowels/cons and topic-re words, whic meaning cle the time. Structure 30% Excellent control of morphological and syntactic structures facilitates understanding. Students use complex /varied structures successfully. Very good use of morphological and syntactic structures contributes to understanding. Students usually use complex/varied structures correctly. Good use o morphologic syntactic str results in fe mistakes th usually hind meaning. Students so use comple structures c
7 often fluent s some ourse fillers hich do not ation. unciation of sh sonants elated ch makes ear most of Speech is sometimes disrupted by the student’s frequent pauses. Several discourse fillers somehow hinder communication. Adequate pronunciation of many English sounds with emphasis on vowels/consonants and topic-related words, which makes meaning somehow difficult to grasp. Speech is usually hesitant. It is often forced into silence by language limitations. Many discourse fillers hinder communication. Very hard to understand message due to significant English vowel/consonant pronunciation problems, which obscure meaning. Speech is so halting and fragmentary as to make conversation impossible. Abundant discourse fillers make communication impossible. Speech is almost unintelligible due to severe pronunciation problems. Meaning is seriously obscured. of cal and ructures ew at do not der ometimes ex/varied correctly. Adequate use of morphological and syntactic structures. Fair amount of mistakes occasionally hinder meaning. Students occasional use of complex/varied structures is sometimes successful. Students rely mostly on basic patterns. Poor use of morphological and syntactic structures makes comprehension difficult. Students rarely attempt to use complex/varied structures but do it mostly unsuccessfully. Student must rephrase and/or restrict to basic patterns. Serious problems in morphology and syntax. Students fail to use complex/varied structures. Students rely solely on basic patterns and/or use them incorrectly.
UNIVERSIDAD DE COSTA RICA Escuela de Lenguas Modernas LM-1230 Oral Communication I Oral Evaluation S RATING 10 Excellent 9 Very Good Content & Vocabulary 20% Excellent development of topic. Excellent usage of much relevant topic-related vocabulary. Clear and sufficient explanations and examples. Very good development of the topic. Very good use of topic-related vocabulary. Very good number of explanations and examples. Good de the topic topic-rela vocabula number explanat example Fluency & Pronunciation 50% Speech is very fluent and effortless. Almost no fillers are used, which makes communication smooth and effective. Excellent pronunciation of most English sounds with emphasis on vowels/ consonants and topic-related words, which facilitates understanding. Speech is usually fluent with some occasional lapses. Very few fillers are used, which do not interfere with communication. Very good pronunciation of most English sounds with emphasis on vowels/consonants and topic-related Speech but pres pauses. Some di are used hinder co Good pro many En vowels/c and topic words, w meaning the time.
8 Scale for Projects 8 Good 7 Adequate 6 Poor 5 or less Very poor/ Not at all evelopment of c. Good use of ated ary. Good of tions and es. Development of the topic is somewhat limited due to inadequate use of topic-related vocabulary and hardly enough explanations and examples. Very limited development of the topic. Basic and/ or insufficient vocabulary related to the topic. Limited number of explanations and/or examples. The content of the topic is insufficient or not developed at all. Very basic or little topic-related vocabulary. Very poor examples and/ or explanations. is often fluent ents some scourse fillers d, which do not ommunication. onunciation of nglish consonants c-related which makes g clear most of . Speech is sometimes disrupted by the student’s frequent pauses. Several discourse fillers somehow hinder communication. Adequate pronunciation of many English sounds with emphasis on vowels/consonants and topic-related Speech is usually hesitant. It is often forced into silence by language limitations. Many discourse fillers hinder communication. Very hard to understand message due to significant English vowel/consonant pronunciation Speech is so halting and fragmentary as to make conversation impossible. Abundant discourse fillers make communication impossible. Speech is almost unintelligible due to severe pronunciation problems. Meaning is seriously obscured.
words, which makes meaning mostly clear. Structure 30% Excellent control of morphological and syntactic structures facilitates understanding. Students use complex /varied structures successfully. Very good use of morphological and syntactic structures contributes to understanding. Students usually use complex/varied structures correctly. Good us morpholo syntactic results in that do n hinder m Students use com structure
9 words, which makes meaning somehow difficult to grasp. problems, which obscure meaning. se of ogical and c structures n few mistakes not usually meaning. s sometimes mplex/varied es correctly. Adequate use of morphological and syntactic structures. Fair amount of mistakes occasionally hinder meaning. Students occasional use of complex/varied structures is sometimes successful. Students rely mostly on basic patterns. Poor use of morphological and syntactic structures makes comprehension difficult. Students rarely attempt to use complex/varied structures but do it mostly unsuccessfully. Student must rephrase and/or restrict to basic patterns. Serious problems in morphology and syntax. Students fail to use complex/varied structures. Students rely solely on basic patterns and/or use them incorrectly.
University of Costa Rica School of Modern Languages LM-1230 Oral Communication I ORAL EXAM EVALUATION FORM Name: __________________________________ COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS (5%) CONTENT & VOCABULARY (15%) FLUENCY Even though each rubric has a pronunciation, vocabulary, and pronunciation, vocabulary, and
10 Date: __________________ Grade: _______________ Y & PRONUNCIATION (50%) STRUCTURE (30%) a percentage, performance is seen as a whole. Weak/bad content will affect d structure because you are not talking enough or not supporting your ideas. Poor d structure will affect content because you are not talking clearly and it is hard to follow.
University of Costa Rica School of Modern Languages LM-1230 Oral Communication I PROJECT EVALUATION FORM Name: __________________________________ CONTENT & VOCABULARY (20%) FLUENCY & PRONUNCIAT (50%) Even though each rubric has a pronunciation, vocabulary, and Poor pronunciation, vocabulary hard to follow.
11 Date: __________________ Grade: _______________ TION STRUCTURE (30%) a percentage, performance is seen as a whole. Weak/bad content will affect d structure because you are not talking enough or not supporting your ideas. y, and structure will affect content because you are not talking clearly and it is
12 Public Speaking Skills Public speaking is not everybody’s favorite class. Most students have a fear of public speaking and come into class the first day thinking it is going to be painful. However, it does not have to be painful if you are ready. Public speaking skills are very important in the working world, so learning about them can be beneficial to just about everybody. In a presentation, the words you use and how you use them are equally important. Good delivery involves different elements, and the following is a list of strategies you can keep in mind and practice to improve your own speaking skills. 1. Read the assignment sheets carefully. Instructors usually give very specific criteria, including how many sources you have to include and how many visual aids to use. Be sure you understand all the criteria and follow the instructions carefully in your speech. 2. Make up a schedule. Find out what you’re supposed to talk about, how long it has to be and when it is due. Work a little each day. Make a schedule to get information, take notes, arrange notes, write introduction and conclusion, and practice. Your brain works better when you feed it information over several days. 3. Decide what you are going to talk about. Brainstorm to find interesting topics that have not been overused. Think about a topic that would be interesting to you and your audience. Do not talk about the whole thing but about one interesting part of it. Be specific. Also, make sure your topic is appropriate for the assignment. If you are not sure, ask.
13 4. Write a good outline. Your instructor will require you to write a detailed outline before you give your presentation. One of the biggest problems students have with oral presentations is organization. Your outline will help you organize your task. 5. Organize your notes. Lay out your cards in a logical order, take out unnecessary cards, add new cards if you need to add details, find a great quote and add a visual. Good oral presentations have an introduction, a body and a conclusion. 6. Use sources to increase your credibility. When you cite a source, be sure to tell the audience who the source is and why your source is trustworthy. For example, if you are talking about lung cancer, say, "According to Dr. Jane Doe, Vice President of the American Lung Association...." 7. Use visual aids. Your visual aids have to be easy to see and look professional. But perhaps more importantly, they need to help convey the ideas of the presentation. A list of your three main points is not a very useful visual aid because it does not demonstrate anything. 8. Write opening and closing sentences. Create a good first impression, grab people’s attention, and let the listener know your oral presentation is interesting. Connect the audience to your topic: begin with a question, a quotation, a description, a definition, a startling statement, show a visual, or use an example from real life. For the conclusion, restate what you wrote in your introduction. 9. Practice. An absolute must. Most people are nervous when they have to perform in public. The best tip is to be really well prepared. If you know that your topic is interesting, and that your material is well organized, you have already reduced a major worry. Rehearse several times. Ask other classmates to listen to you. Look into a mirror to rehearse, tape record your speech, read your cards and look up. 10. Time yourself. Practice in front of someone from start to finish. Put your cards under the pack as you use them. When you practice, make sure you are within the assigned time limit. If your presentation is too long, cut out details. 11. Remember, delivery isn’t everything. Delivery is how you use your voice and body to present the speech to an audience. Have a good posture. Try to change your
14 facial expressions to convey the emotions that you feel. Movement and gestures also help your audience to understand the meaning of your speech. This is important. However, students sometimes place too much importance on delivery and not enough on the content of the presentation. The oral presentation needs to be well-prepared and interesting. 12. Give your oral presentation. Think positive. Take deep breaths to calm down and pause to relax. Do not say ‘uh’ or ‘um’ or ‘you know’ or ‘I don’t know’. Keep eye contact to give the idea that you are talking top each individual in your audience. Do not lean or jiggle around. Speak loudly, clearly, and with enthusiasm. As you create your presentation remember to include the principles of what makes a good oral presentation: involving your audience, keeping them involved, using a clear thesis statement, giving clear supporting material, and concluding the task with impact. Avoid becoming too technical in your explanations. Taken and adapted from: The Informative Speech: http://spot.pcc.edu/~dwerkman/lecture3.html Hannum’s Reading and Study Skills Tips and Strategies: How to Give a Great Speech. 10 Steps to A+ Speeches: http://www.fredonia.wnyric.org/MSPages/StudyGuide/goodspeech.htm Rockler-Gladen, N. Public Speaking Class Tips: Writing Great Speeches for Your Public Speaking Class: http://collegeuniversity.suite101.com/article.cfm/public_speaking_class_tips Dale, P. and Wolf J. Speech Communication for International Students. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents.
15 Successful Group Projects This study guide has been written for students undertaking group projects as part of their course. It will help you to manage your group activities effectively, increase group performance and maximize the benefits of group assessment. Group work at university There are many occasions when you will be asked to work with other students on your course: tutorials and seminars rely on group discussion whilst group projects involve students working together to complete a piece of assessed work. This guide focuses in particular on group projects that involve such activities as: 1. researching and writing a report; 2. devising and writing up an experiment; 3. working on a design brief to design a new product or service. Group projects often involve a substantial task that is undertaken over an extended period. You may be required to manage your own work independently and the outcomes of your group’s work (a report, poster or presentation) may be assessed in a variety of different ways. The benefits of group work Whatever form the group work takes on your course, the opportunity to work with others, rather than on your own, can provide distinct benefits. • Increased productivity and performance: Groups that work well together can achieve much more than individuals working on their own. A broader range of skills can be applied to practical activities and sharing and discussing ideas can play a pivotal role in deepening your understanding of a particular subject area. • Skills development: Being part of a team will help you develop your interpersonal skills such as speaking and listening as well as team working skills
16 such as leadership, and working with and motivating others. Some of these skills will be useful throughout your academic career and all are valued by employers. • Knowing more about yourself: Collaborating with others will help identify your own strengths and weaknesses (for example, you may be a better leader than listener, or you might be good at coming up with the ’big ideas’ but not so good at putting them into action). Enhanced self-awareness will both help your approach to learning and will be invaluable when you come to write your CV or complete job application forms. In order to maximize these benefits, you will need to manage your group work effectively. Stages in group work To ensure a successful group outcome, you will find it helpful to divide your activities into a series of stages: 1. familiarization; 2. planning and preparation; 3. implementation; 4. completion. Managing each of these stages effectively will greatly enhance your group performance. Stage One - Familiarization This is the stage when the individual members of the group get to know each other and begin to understand the task they need to undertake. Time spent at this stage discussing your individual areas of interest and skills will be invaluable in helping your group develop a sense of its own identity (including its strengths and weaknesses). Make sure everyone understands what it is they will need to achieve. Think about: • the product: i.e. a report, oral presentation or poster what guidelines have been set by your department to govern this work? • the time scale: i.e. date of final presentation or submission
17 what things need to be done before you hand in your work? how much time should you spend on the group project in relation to your other commitments? • the assessment: i.e. the way your activity or output will be marked do you know the assessment criteria? Will you be assessed as a group or as individuals? If your group needs clarification of any of these issues, consult your course tutor. Stage Two - Planning and preparation This is the stage when your group should plan exactly what needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and who should do what. Pay attention to the following: • agree on the different elements of the task (e.g. a poster might involve background research, written text, an overall design, graphs and images, final assembly and so on); • agree on the best way of achieving these tasks by dividing areas of responsibility amongst the group, making sure that roles and time commitments are as evenly balanced as possible; • make the most of your different areas of expertise by dividing tasks up according to the skills of different group members; • make an action plan of what needs to be done by when, working towards the final deadline. Stage Three - Implementation Whilst your group carries out its tasks you will need to preserve your group’s sense of purpose. Effective communication is vital, particularly when your group activity extends over time. Here are some tips to promote good communication. • Share addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses at an early stage to facilitate contact between members of the group. • If possible, set up an email distribution list for rapid communication so that issues or problems can be flagged up as and when they arise.
18 • Establish regular meetings of the whole group to check on progress and review action plans. Take notes at these meetings to help record complex discussions. Stage Four - Completion The final stage of your project is often the most difficult and may require a different management approach. It will be vital to ensure that you pay close attention to detail, tie up loose ends and review the whole product rather than your discrete part of it. It is important to regroup at this stage to agree a new action plan for the final burst of activity. Trouble shooting Occasionally, groups can run into trouble, and it is useful to be aware of some of the problems (and the appropriate solutions) right from the start. The following list highlights some of the most common difficulties. • Unfair division or take-up of labor between different group members: this can lead to resentment if someone feels they are doing all the hard work or if the group thinks that one or more members are not doing their fair share. Use your meetings to check that people are happy with their workloads and discuss problems openly, making sure that issues are addressed as a group concern rather than putting pressure on individuals. • Conflict between different group members: this might arise for many different reasons including two people competing for leadership or simple disagreement about ways forward. Do not be afraid to rotate leadership responsibilities or find ways of accommodating differing opinions. Your group practices should be flexible and democratic rather than rigid and leader-led. • Tackling inappropriate tasks as a whole group: groups are notoriously bad environments for carrying out such activities as writing first drafts of documents or carrying out detailed searches. Be aware of the limitations of group activity and don’t be afraid to delegate responsibility for particular tasks to individuals.
19 Always consult your course tutor if there are overwhelming problems in your group. An independent voice can often help diffuse tension and help your group get back on the right track. Making the most of assessment Group work may be assessed in a number of ways. Most commonly, groups are asked to produce a single piece of assessed work (this could be an oral presentation or written report) whilst the individual members might be asked to provide a personal account of their work (this could be another report or a work diary). Group assessment can also take place through the use of a viva with small groups being interviewed together to discuss their work or individual group members interviewed in turn to talk about their contribution. Planning effective oral presentations If you are making a group presentation, make sure that this is written and rehearsed as a group. Share opportunities for speaking rather than making one person do all the work (unless there are too many people in your group or there just isn’t enough time). Change speakers in strategic places, using the different voices to structure your presentation (e.g. one person could take the introduction, another the main discussion, a third the conclusions). Finally, use effective linking statements to announce the handover from one speaker to another, e.g.: So far, we’ve looked at the methods used in the design process. I would now like to hand over to Melissa to talk about the features of the final product. Writing a group report Writing a group report can be challenging. If you divide responsibility for drafting chapters or sections between the different members of your group, you will need to nominate someone to take overall responsibility for pulling the final piece together. Careful copy editing at this stage is essential to make sure that the document is logical and consistent. Key things to watch out for here include: • have the authors used the same writing style (tense/voice/person)?
20 • do the individual sections lead on from each other logically? • is the use of references, units, abbreviations and notation consistent? You will need to make sure that you have left plenty of time for this final stage. Preparing for your viva If you have been asked to discuss your group’s performance in a viva make sure that you meet to plan for this activity in the same way you planned your other work. This will give you an opportunity to address issues such as allocation of roles, time management and task completion. Use the notes from your group meetings to evaluate your group’s performance, identifying negative as well as positive aspects (no group performs flawlessly all of the time). Remember to talk about your group’s performance as a group rather than discussing the performance of individual group members. Summary The skills acquired from successfully managed group work will be of great use to your academic and future careers. It is essential to manage your group work effectively, planning for the different stages of group activity. Time spent discussing how your group will work together will be invaluable in helping to create a constructive working team. The effective organization, communication and troubleshooting strategies described in this guide will help your group work productively to complete its task. Taken from: https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/study-guides-pdfs/study-skillspdfs/successful-group-projects
21 PART I HEALTH ISSUES Part I: Health Issues
22 A User’s Guide To Good Health At Every Age The road to wellness begins in childhood and twists and turns over time. We asked five experts in prevention to give their best advice for staying healthy throughout life. By Tiffany Sharples, T. (2009, June 22). A User’s Guide To Good Health At Every Age. Time, 173(24) 85-86, 89-90 Childhood 0-12 At the Doctor’s Office Get all of the recommended vaccinations. “All of them,” says Dr. Joseph Hagan, a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. For children 12 or younger, these include hepatitis A and B, DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis), varicella and polio. For girls ages 11 and older, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the human papillomavirus vaccine. (The CDC website has a comprehensive schedule of vaccinations.) Pediatricians advise tracking children’s body mass index, or BMI, the main indicator of healthy body weight; screening for anemia and autism before age 2; and checking for high cholesterol before age 10. New guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics suggest considering cholesterol-lowering drugs for kids at high risk of heart disease as young as age 8. Diet and Nutrition Healthy eating habits can’t begin early enough. For kids, the American Heart Association recommends a diet high in whole grains, vegetables and fruits — but with limited juice — and low in saturated fat, trans fat, salt and added sugars. Infants need extra fat and calories for development, but as they grow, they should begin to eat a leaner diet. “Until age 2, kids should be taking whole milk,” says Hagan, “but beginning at age 2, they should be on a lower-fat milk. We want them to develop a taste for low fat.” Physical Fitness For children ages 6 and older and adolescents, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommends at least one hour of physical activity every day, including vigorous exercise at least three times per week. Kids should get a mix of aerobic (hiking, for example), muscle building (rope-climbing) and bonestrengthening (running) activity. Hagan puts it simply: “Ideally I want you to be sweaty for an hour every day.” That means limiting TV time to less than two hours per day and encouraging children to be active — how is up to them. Bike-riding, jumping rope, soccer, playing outside after school? “That’s all really good exercise,” Hagan says. Behavior and Mood Doctors welcome lots of questions from parents and children, especially if they’re concerned about symptoms of anxiety or depression, or behavioral disorders such as hyperactivity and autism, says Hagan. He encourages parents to have intimate talks at home early on, laying the foundation for more-complex discussions with their kids — about puberty and safe sex, say — as they develop. At what age “depends on the child,” says Hagan, who usually broaches the subject of children’s “private areas” at age 6. “Inevitably parents have had ‘the talk’
23 usually four to six months too late,” he says. Adolescence 13-18 At the Doctor’s Office “Adolescents should have yearly checkups,” says Dr. Michael Weitzman, a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at NYU’s Langone Medical Center. They should also update their inoculations — including a tetanus booster, the annual flu vaccine and, especially for college-bound kids, the meningitis vaccine. Additionally, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that teenage girls have their first gynecologic visit when they are 13 to 15, and if they haven’t done so yet, get the human papillomavirus vaccine. Diet and Nutrition “It’s a lot easier not to develop problems than it is to cure them,” says Weitzman. One-third of American teens are overweight or obese, which dramatically increases their risk for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, asthma and other chronic ailments, including depression. While growing teens need extra calories, they should get them from nutritious sources — not high-fat, high calorie, high-sugar foods like cookies, soda, candy and fast food — and they shouldn’t consume more calories than they expend. “On average, if you eat one to two cookies a day more than the energy you need, you’ll gain a pound a month,” says Weitzman, adding that maintaining a healthy diet is a who lefamily affair. After all, kids are not typically the ones doing the grocery shopping. “You can’t have foods in the house and ask only one person not to eat them,” Weitzman says. Physical Fitness Physicality is a fraught subject in adolescence. While fitness and weight maintenance are crucial for disease prevention, putting too much emphasis on physical appearance — especially when so many teens already feel insecure and dissatisfied with how they look — could trigger unhealthy body-image issues. One way to make sure kids log off the computer or video-game console and get their mini mum recommended one hour of physical activity per day is to encourage participation in organized sports — which is also a great way to foster self-esteem and teamwork. But Weitzman cautions that sports should be primarily for the kids’ satisfaction, not the parents’. Behavior and Mood Teens are moody. there’s no way around that, says Weitzman, and being able to distinguish a minor mood swing from a serious disorder takes practice. As a rule of thumb, any dark stage that persists beyond a week, affects friendship patterns or impairs performance in school “should raise a red flag for parents that something might be wrong,” says Weitzman. Aside from depression, issues that often surface in adolescence include eating disorders, anxiety, stress and more serious mental illness, such as bipolar disorder, as well as experimentation with tobacco, alcohol, drugs and sex. At this age more than any other, and no matter how much teenagers resist, parental communication is important to catch early signs of a problem.
24 Young Adulthood 19-35 At the Doctor’s Office “Patients really should be empowered,” says Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine. “You shouldn’t assume that your doctor knows everything he or she should know.” So preserving your good health means educating yourself. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force maintains comprehensive guides to the latest recommendations for disease prevention, which include blood-pressure screenings for all adults over 18, cervical-cancer screenings for all sexually active women, and counseling to help you quit smoking and keep a healthy weight and consume alcohol moderately, among other good habits. Diet and Nutrition Now that you’re preparing your own meals, it’s important to learn how to choose your foods wisely. In general, that means selecting foods that will fill you up on fewer calories, Katz says. Start by opting for lots of single-ingredient foods — broccoli or salmon, say — instead of highly processed multi-ingredient products, with their long lists of additives and preservatives. In other words, put down the Cheez Doodles. “They’re phosphorescent!” Katz exclaims. “If it glows in the dark, don’t eat it.” Instead, he recommends preparing a good for-you snack to keep in your bag for those moments when you feel peckish. Having, say, a mix of dried fruits and almonds on hand can prevent you from getting seduced by the vending machine. “It’s your food equivalent of an umbrella,” he says. Physical Fitness No time to work out? Katz doesn’t buy that excuse. Exercise shouldn’t be something that we’re “making time” for, he says. It should be a daily given, like sleep or eating. “If you want a lifetime of robust health, you have to be religious about your physical activity,” Katz says, which, according to HHS, means getting 2 1⁄2 to five hours of moderate cardio, or 75 minutes to 2 1⁄2 hours of intense cardio, each week, plus weight training twice a week. But that doesn’t mean you have to slog it out on a treadmill at the gym. Pick a truly enjoyable activity — and a workout partner if you can find one — that will make you sweat and that you can commit to, says Katz. “Put on music for half an hour every evening,” he says, “and dance around your house!” Behavior and Mood Young adulthood is a minefield of mental and emotional trials — whether you’re entering the workforce (or getting laid off) for the first time, coming home from war or having your first child. Now’s the time to monitor your mental health. The nonprofit organization Mental Health America has a 10item checklist of tools for protecting and promoting your psychological wellbeing. Some are good old common sense: eat well, exercise, get enough sleep, foster good friendships. But being mindful of your mental state means recognizing when you need outside help. The National Institute of Mental Health is a good starting point for resources for people who may be battling depression, eating disorders, social anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder and other conditions.
25 Middle Adulthood 36-59 At the Doctor’s Office Your list of recommended medical tests is about to get longer: the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says men should get their cholesterol checked regularly after age 35 — women, after 45 — and talk to the doctor about lipid-lowering medication if necessary. At age 40, women should begin getting mammograms every one to two years. (Women with a family history or other breast-cancer risk factors may start earlier.) The American Cancer Society advises doctors to discuss prostate-cancer screening — although its utility is still being debated by medical experts — with patients at age 50, or younger if they are at high risk for the disease. At 50, men and women should be screened for colorectal cancer. “There’s a real need to keep up with vaccinations,” says Dr. Jonathan Samet, chair of the department of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. That includes tetanus, diphtheria, measles and mumps; the flu vaccine, advisable at all ages, should become a regular part of your preventive routine at 50, according to the CDC. Diet and Nutrition Weight has a way of sneaking onto the middle-aged frame. “A teaspoon of sugar has 15 calories,” says Samet. If you consume an extra teaspoon a day without burning off the calories, a year later, you’ve gained more than a pound. Ten years later, you’ve gained 15 pounds. Samet advises vigilance: find a healthy body weight and maintain it with a high-fiber, low-fat, lowsugar diet. Healthy foods should deliver much of your daily requirements of vitamins and minerals. However, many women still don’t get enough calcium, which puts them at risk for bone loss, and many Americans are deficient in vitamin D. Your doctor can test you for adequate levels of the vitamin. Physical Fitness “Trying to maintain weight and fitness doesn’t mean you have to be an Olympic athlete,” says Samet. But a daily routine of physical activity gets more and more important as you age — not only to prevent weight gain and chronic illness but also to keep the brain sharp. Studies have shown that even small amounts of moderate exercise can help reduce the risk of dementia. In addition to cardiovascular exercise and strength training, doctors advise working on balance and flexibility, which can help protect against falls and injury in later life. Behavior and Mood The term midlife crisis has become a cliché. Nevertheless, middle age can be an emotional low point. A 2008 study of 2 million people in 80 countries found that the middle age years were associated with the highest risk of depression: at about age 40 for American women and 50 for men. (The data suggest that mood improves from the 50s on.) One of the best ways to promote emotional wellbeing is to get your blood pumping — even a simple daily walk outside will do. And if any of your bad habits, like smoking or heavy drinking, have persisted into middle age, now is the time to kick them. “Tobacco — just no,” says Samet. “There’s no better way to kill yourself in middle age.” At the Doctor’s Office
26 Seniors 60 + At the Doctor’s Office Vaccinations aren’t just for kids. Older adults should update their inoculations, including a tetanus booster every 10 years and an annual flu shot, and start new ones, like the pneumonia vaccine, that are particularly important after age 60. Dr. Rosanne Leipzig, vice chair of the department of geriatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, also recommends Zostavax, a vaccine that studies have shown reduces the risk of shingles — a painful condition caused by the reactivation of the varicella zoster virus, the same one that causes chicken pox — by half in older adults. Apart from regular vaccinations, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force suggests routine bone-density screenings for osteoporosis for women over 65. Leipzig says older patients should also be screened for balance problems and discuss fall prevention with their doctor. “More than a third of older adults fall each year,” she says, which leads to serious injury and disability. Indeed, one-quarter of older Americans who suffer a hip fracture from a fall — which research suggests may often be caused by poor balance resulting from an inner-ear disorder — die within six months of the injury. Diet and Nutrition A lifetime of healthy eating pays off with overall well-being in late adulthood. But beyond a balanced and varied diet of whole grains, lean proteins and fruits and vegetables, vitamin supplementation becomes increasingly important in older age as the body’s ability to absorb vital nutrients from food diminishes. That’s particularly true with vitamin B12, says Leipzig, which is found in beef, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products. For older adults, “B12 is something that you absorb better in a pill form,” Leipzig says. She also strongly recommends calcium and vitamin D supplements. In the U.S., “there is basically an epidemic at this point of vitamin D deficiency,” she says. Meanwhile, a growing body of evidence highlights the benefits of getting enough: vitamin D helps prevent rickets in children and severe bone loss in adults and may reduce the risk of multiple sclerosis, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and flu. Physical Fitness “Exercise, exercise, exercise. It’s the only wonder drug we have,” Leipzig says. Adults who are physically active not only have a lower risk of disease, depression and chronic pain from conditions like arthritis and back pain but are also less vulnerable to dementia than their inactive peers. The government’s exercise recommendations for older adults are identical to those for younger ones. Leipzig underscores a point made by other prevention specialists. “It has to be reasonable,” she says. “Walking 30 minutes a day, parking farther away at the supermarket — whatever it takes.” Behavior and Mood The risk factors for disease and disability are pretty well known by now, but what about the factors that may stave off agerelated decline — particularly of the mind? A recent study of 2,500 adults ages 70 to 79 published in the journal Neurology found that those who were able to preserve mental acuity had a few things in common: they exercised at least once a week, did not smoke, had a minimum of a high school education and a ninth-grade literacy level and were socially active. That last point is
27 crucial, according to experts on aging, who say social connection — with friends or family or within the community — helps keep a mind healthy. Likewise, isolation can be a mark of decline, Leipzig says. “One of the signs that something may be happening is people start to be isolated, socialize less, want to go out less. That may be [due to] a mood disorder or an awareness that they can’t keep up.”
28 The Oldest Old: A Look at Centenarians A. Background Read the information and do the activity that follows. Work in small groups. Read this list of factors mentioned by scientists. Discuss how much influence each factor may have on longevity. Write V (very influential), S (somewhat influential), or N (not very influential) next to each factor. ______ caring for others ______ cheerfulness ______ educational level ______ exercise ______ flexibility ______ genetics ______ luck ______ nutrition ______ quality of medical care Increased longevity is one of the most notable developments of the modern era. More people are living longer, much longer than in earlier generations. Life expectancy in the United States has increased from 49 years, at the start of this century, to 76 years. Because many more people are living into and beyond their late seventies, our views of aging are changing. Some researchers have even suggested that we are pioneering a new stage of life. Traditionally, old age has been seen as a time of decline and deterioration. Little by little, people’s losses accumulate: There are losses of family, spouses, friends, physical and mental abilities. Now, being old no longer means being weak or sick. Today, greater numbers of elderly people are enjoying remarkable health and energy. This phenomenon has led one writer, Harry Moody, to make a distinction between two groups of elderly: the “wellderly” and the “illderly.” Those who live on into old age and remain well, the “wellderly,” are the focus of a great deal of research. Why is it that some people are able to cope with the challenges of old age better than others? What characteristics or personality traits seem to lead to longevity?
29 B. Vocabulary for Comprehension Read the statements. Then find a word or expression in the list that follows that is similar in meaning to the underlined words. Write the appropriate letter in the blanks. 1. _____ Recent statistics challenge the pervasive attitude that the elderly are sick or inactive. 2. _____ The woman’s elderly father had to be institutionalized since she could no longer care for him in her home. 3. _____ Loneliness is a common thread that one hears in discussions about the problems of aging. 4. _____ One of her grandmother’s best traits was her sense of humor. 5. _____ At the funeral, her friends and family praised the woman’s life-long engagement in community activities. 6. _____ As the woman aged, her mobility became limited and she could no longer leave her home. 7. _____ The loss of a spouse often forces the surviving partner to manage finances. 8. _____ He was an only child who had always wanted siblings. 9. _____ The elderly widower was lonely because most of his peers had either died or moved to Florida. 10. _____ By incorporating bike riding and swimming into his daily routine, the 85-year-old man was able to keep fit and healthy. a. brothers or sisters b. ability to move easily from place to place c. husband or wife d. including e. people of the same age f. basic theme g. widespread h. personality characteristics i. placed in a healthcare facility that provides help with daily living j. involvement C. Listening: Interview with the Director of a Senior Citizen Village I. Introducing the Topic You will hear a news report about centenarians in the United States. The journalists will interview Mr. Victor Parnell, the director of Cherry Blossoms Village, a residential village for the elderly in Baltimore, Maryland. Listen to the reporters opening statement. Then discuss your answer to the question below with a partner.
30 • What kind of information do you think will be presented in the news report? II. Listening for Main Ideas Read the following questions. Then listen to the entire news report. As you listen, write short answers to the questions. Compare your answers with those of another student. 1. What are the findings of the new research being done on the elderly? __________________________________ __________________________________ __ 2. Why is more research on the “oldest old” needed? __________________________________ __________________________________ __ 3. What did the scientists in Georgia want to find out? __________________________________ __________________________________ __ 4. According to the researchers, what are the four main themes or characteristics that all of the 96 centenarians have in common? __________________________________ __________________________________ __ 5. Scientists in Georgia studied centenarians’ diets. What did they discover? __________________________________ __________________________________ __ 6. What suggestions do the centenarians offer about living to be 100? __________________________________ __________________________________ __
31 III. Listening for Details Listen to the news report again. Read the sentences and write T (true) or F (false) in the blanks. Correct the false statements. The first one has been done for you. Then discuss your answers with a partner. beyond their expectations. _____ 1. Most Americans are not living as long as they expected. _____ 2. In Cherry Blossoms Village, nineteen of the residents are over 85 years old. _____ 3. In Cherry Blossoms Village, nineteen of the residents are over 85 years old. _____ 4. In the United States, there are twice as many centenarians as there were ten years ago. _____ 5. All the people studied by these scientists from Georgia live in institutions for the elderly. _____ 6. Diet and exercise were factors mentioned by all the centenarians studied. _____ 7. Almost all the residents at Cherry Blossoms Village have unusual hobbies. _____ 8. The centenarians who were studied ate a highly nutritious diet. _____ 9. Some of the centenarians in the Village suggest that people drink alcohol and eat pork in order to live a long life. _____ 10.The nutritionist at Cherry Blossoms Village doesn’t understand how the centenarians can survive on a diet that is high in fat. _____ 11.Even though most of the centenarians’ close family members have died, most their friends are still alive.
32 Sugar vs Fat Twin brothers take radical steps to show the real impact of our fad diets In a groundbreaking Horizon documentary, identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken tested the real impact of sugar and fat to discover which of our treats is to blame for the obesity crisis By Danny Buckland, 2014. Retrieved from Express, January 28, 2015 The race to demonize sugar in the fight against Britain’s soaring obesity levels could be heading in the wrong direction, according to a unique experiment. The “white stuff” is being targeted as public health enemy No. 1 as the nation struggles to cope with personal misery and an annual £5billion bill for treating illness and disease caused by overeating. Our dimensions are disturbing: 25 per cent of adults are obese and the figures are expected to climb to 60 per cent of men and 50 per cent of women by 2050. Three in 10 children aged between two and 15 are overweight or obese. Yet as public frenzy builds around the status of sugar, two doctors have conducted a fascinating experiment to see who is the most to blame in the heavyweight fight: Fat or Sugar? Chris and Xand van Tulleken, who have pushed themselves to extremes on expeditions to the Arctic and the jungle, devised an innovative personal challenge to find the answer. As identical twins with identical genes, they are ideally placed to test the impact of high fat and sugar diets. Xand, director of the Institute of Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham University in New York, went on a high-fat diet with just 5 per cent carbs while Chris had a super low-fat, high-carb regime with no food containing higher than 5g per 100g. Their grueling month-long quest, detailing the rival metabolic impacts on their minds and bodies, sees them both lose weight with a worrying conclusion that will be revealed on BBC2’s Horizon program on Wednesday. After dueling through a cycle challenge and a cognitive test trading shares on a virtual stock market however, the verdict surprised both. Neither fat nor sugar was completely culpable and the real villain, a potent combination of high fat and high sugar in processed foods, had escaped the dock and was sunning itself on a metaphoric extradition treaty-free beach. “We should not vilify a single nutrient. We will be demonizing protein next after we have done with fat and sugar,” says Chris, an infection doctor at University College Hospital, London, and a Medical Research Council fellow at University College London. “It is too easy to demonize fat or sugar but that enables you to let yourself off the hook
33 in other ways. The enemy is right in front of us in the shape of processed foods.” Research by Professor Paul Kenny, of the Scripps Institute, provides sobering evidence of what is happening a little way down the evolutionary scale. Feeding laboratory rats with either high-fat and high-sugar diets did little to change their daily habits or health but supply them with chocolate, biscuits and cheesecake (a near 50-50 fat and sugar split) and behavior changed radically. They ignored other foods for the cheesecake, going back to it regularly rather than gorging, and put on weight. Their selfregulation system, that naturally stopped them eating too much fat or sugar, effectively switched off. “It became their main source of calories,” Kenny tells Horizon. “They gained massive amounts of weight, became sedentary, slept a lot and did not move around.” He found that the allure of processed food was overriding the body’s natural hormones that regulate intake by alerting the brain that the body has enough calories. It is the same faculty that is impaired in drug addicts whose On-Off mechanisms are degraded by the release of pleasure hormones in the brain’s hedonic system, he says. Susan Jebb, Professor of Diet and Population Health at the University of Oxford, has studied the impact of fat and sugar on diets for a decade and believes it is difficult to pin guilt simply on either. “Processed foods pack calories in and are unbelievably attractive and delicious,” she says. “They are temptations for all of us and it is astonishing that any of us stay slim. The statistics that have lead to a rush to condemn sugar include a tin of tomato soup containing four teaspoons of sugar, the same as a serving of Kellogg’s Frosties with semi-skimmed milk, while a can of CocaCola has nine teaspoons of sugar and a 51g Mars Bar, eight. “In Britain, where we are surrounded by pretty delicious, relatively affordable and palatable foods, you have to exert quite a level of dietary restraint if you are not going to sleepwalk into obesity.” She adds that no one food is “saint or sinner” while modest lifestyle changes and balanced diet are the way to health. Chris agrees: “Research over 10 years gives us great confidence to say that no single macro-nutrient diet reduction is the answer. Cutting out a single thing will not solve your problem. Faddish diets simply do not work very well. “It is about building an environment in your life where you could easily eat a cheap and healthy diet and get enough exercise. It is amazing that we are not all fat and I come away with a sense that I know enough about diet and nutrition and I should be reducing the calories and building an environment where I can do that rather than looking for one toxic ingredient.” With the typical Briton consuming 12 teaspoons of sugar a day, experts want that reduced to five. The newly formed Action on Sugar is calling for the food industry to reduce refined sugar content by 20 to 30 per cent in the next five years. “This is not an anti-sugar program,” says Chris. “There is no question that drinking sugary drinks will make you fat but whether
34 it is the sugar that is toxic or it is just the calories is not so clear. “People will be surprised by what happened to our bodies during the experiment. The important element that emerges is that we need to teach a bit of critical thinking so we do not take every sensational new diet or piece of health advice at face value. “If you find yourself worshiping one nutritional god you may find you need to change churches in a few months as you rise and fall on the tide. Processed foods are delicious and we eat a lot of them so it may be a painful conclusion that we have to remove a bit of deliciousness from our lives but you can find healthy stuff that is delicious.” The 35-year-old twins put themselves through their Angels and Demons dietary mangle in the name of science and both emerged with a greater understanding of how the body performs and how to help it survive. “It is about creating an environment at home and work where you can have something delicious without every meal being packed with processed foods. Our goal is how we help people make changes to have healthy lives without being totalitarian about their diets.”
35 PART II THE ENVIRONMENT Part II: The Environment
36 UNIVERSIDAD DE COSTA RICA Escuela de Lenguas Modernas LM-1230 R. Coto K. (Video taken from www.thestoryofstuff.com Activity prepared by R. Coto K.) The Story of Stuff General instructions. You are going to watch the video the Story of Stuff three times: pay attention to the presenter and do the exercises below. Part I--Introduction. Circle TRUE or FALSE. If the statement is FALSE make it true in the line provided. 1. TRUE FALSE The speaker worries about where her cell phone comes from and where it would end up. ________________________________________________ 2. TRUE FALSE The existence of materials starts with the production stage and finishes with the disposal stage. _______________________________________________ 3. TRUE FALSE The major problem with the explanation of the materials economy is that it is a linear system. ________________________________________________ 4. TRUE FALSE According to the speaker the explanation of the materials economy is faulty because it does not include people in the picture. ________________________________________________
37 Part II—Extraction. Working with numbers. From the number bank below, choose the correct number to complete the text. Some numbers might be repeated. 3 5 7 2000 1/3 4% 5% 30% 40% 75% 80% 1. ____________ of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed in the past ____________ decades. 2. In the United States, there are less than ____________ of our original forests left. 3. ____________ of water resources have become undrinkable in the United States. 4. The United States has ____________ of the world’s population but they are consuming ____________ of the world’s resources and creating ____________ of the world’s waste. 5. If everybody in the world consumed at the rate the United States is consuming, it would be necessary to have ____________ to ____________ planets. 6. Nowadays, ____________ of world fishing places are fished at or beyond capacity. 7. ____________ of the planet’s original forests have disappeared. 8. In the Amazon, ____________ trees a minute are lost, which means ____________ football fields a minute. Part III—Production. Note taking. Complete the outline below. The production phase I. It consists of _____________________________________________________________ II. There are ______________ synthetic chemicals in commerce today.
38 III. Problems with testing for chemicals: A. _______________________________________________________________ B. _______________________________________________________________ IV. Consequence: __________________________________________________________________ V. Example: BFR´s (Brominated flame retardants) A. Function: _______________________________________________________________ B. Problem: _______________________________________________________________ C. They can be found in 1. home objects such as ______________________________________________ 2. the food chain, especially _____________________________, which has the highest concentration of toxic contaminants. VI. Effects on factory workers _____________________________________________________________ VII. Byproducts: A. The main byproduct is ____________________________________________________
39 B. Companies release _______________________________________________________ C. Their solution: ___________________________________________________________ D. The irony of this solution __________________________________________________ Part IV—Distribution. Fill in the blanks with the missing words. So, what happens after all these resources are turned into products? Well, it moves here, for distribution. Now distribution means “selling all this toxic contaminated junk as quickly as possible.” The goal here is to keep the prices _____________, keep the people ______________ and keep the inventory _____________. How do they keep the prices down? Well, they don’t pay the store workers very much and skimp on _________________________ every time they can. It’s all about externalizing the costs. What that means is the real costs of making stuff aren’t captured in the price. In other words, we aren’t really paying for the stuff we buy. I was thinking about this the other day. I was walking to work and I wanted to listen to the news so I popped into this Radio Shack to buy a radio. I found this cute little green radio for $4.99 I was standing there in line to buy this radio and I wondering how $4.99 could possibly capture the costs of making this radio and getting it to my hands. The metal was probably mined in _________________, the petroleum was probably drilled in _____________, the plastics were probably produced in ____________, and maybe the whole thing was assembled by some 15-year-old in a maquiladora in ____________. $4.99 wouldn‘t even pay the rent for the shelf space it occupied until I came along, let alone part of the staff guy’s salary that helped me pick it out, or the multiple _________________ and ________________ pieces of this radio went on. That’s how I realized, I didn’t pay for the radio. So, ________________________? Well. these people paid with the loss of their _________________________. These people paid with the loss of their clean air, with increasing _______________ and ________________ Kids in the Congo paid with their future—__________of the kids in parts of the Congo now have had to drop out of school to mine coltan, a metal we need for our _________________ electronics. These people even paid, by having to cover their own _______________________. All along this system, people
40 pitched in so I could get this radio for $4.99 And none of these contributions are recorded in any accounts book. That is what I mean by the company owners externalize the true costs of production. PART V—Consumption and Disposal. Answer the questions below. 1. What is the “golden arrow of consumption”? ________________________________________________________________________ 2. What did President Bush suggest American do after 9/11? _____________________________________________________________________ 3. According to the speaker what is the primary identity of Americans? _____________________________________________________________________ 4. What percentage of “stuff” is still in use in the U.S. after 6 months? _____________________________________________________________________ 5. After World War II, what became the U.S.´s ultimate purpose? _____________________________________________________________________ 6. What is “planned obsolescence”? _____________________________________________________________________ 7. What can´t computers be updated to the latest technology? _____________________________________________________________________ 8. What is “perceived obsolescence”? How do they achieve this? Mention two examples. _____________________________________________________________________ 9. How many ads do Americans see each day? _____________________________________________________________________ 10. What is ironic about Americans’ patterns of consumption? _____________________________________________________________________ 11. How many pounds of garbage does each person produce in the U.S.?
41 _____________________________________________________________________ 12. How is garbage disposed of in the U.S.? Mention three ways. _____________________________________________________________________ 13. What super toxins does burning create? _____________________________________________________________________ 14. Why would recycling never be enough? Mention two reasons. _____________________________________________________________________