Comments. 1.Mohammed ( Birmingham) wrote: Why is Baroness Warsi raising the subject of Islam as a talking point?

1.Mohammed (Birmingham) wrote: Why is Baroness Warsi raising the subject of Islam as a talking point? To me it seems pretty farcical, almost counter-productive. All she is doing is bringing the whole Islamaphobia issue to the fore. There are prejudices, but there are other prejudices occurring in different parts of the world that are far more important than this.

2.alassan wrote: I think that Islamophobia has been created by two parties: Muslims and the West. The Islamic is being still now by the most brutal regimes in the world (former Tunisian regime is the striking example). As for the West, we had all already known that these brutal regimes cannot survive even one single day without the help of the West (we have seen the French government has done everything to save Ben Ali and his regime!) I think it is time now to stop this stupidity and work together for the benefit of the Humankind.

3.Curtsy wrote: Part of the problem we are seeing today is not religious, it is political. Western powers have attacked Islamic nations, killed Muslims, undermined their governments, supported occupations and dictatorships for decades and are now dealing with a lot of angry Muslims as a result.

4.Alan in AZ wrote: Islam is responsible for Islamaphobia! It's a religion that scares the rest of the world. It scares the world when a driver kills his employer over religion and is praised! It scares the world when men and women in love are stoned to death. It scares the world when a person loses their hand because someone says they stole food with no proof. It scares the world when a father kills his daughter because she is to westernized. So take resp(responsibility) Islam! Don't blame the world for what you have caused! It is Islam itself, which has the ambition of taking over world control, just as nationalists and communists would like to.

5.Jens wrote: It is not islamophobia, but rather a backlash against a part of a community, which is trying to impose their laws and morality upon the country they have chosen to immigrate to and live in. I am an atheists living in a free society, and as a consequence have the right to mock religions, draw cartoons of whatever/whomever I feel like drawing, can run advertisment campaings with dogs, etc. There is simply no excuse to attack people, burn down churches, accept suicid bombers etc as a response to feeling offended.

6.Jodie in Virginia wrote: If one reflects without the emotion of the moment, Muslims living in our countries before 9/11 did their thing while we did ours (according to whatever group we belonged to.) After 9/11 however, Muslims found themselves under a microscope: their differences from everyone else being magnified, and their membership in our communities being minimalized. In such a climate, I would be sensitive and defensive were I Muslim.

7.Dan from Boston wrote: Islam was, is and always will be the enemy of Western civilization. It is an extension of the conflict between West and East dating back to the Greeks and Romans and actually pre-dates both Christianity and Islam. For histories, radical Islamic Muslims, in support of their Quran beliefs, have been at war with all Judeo-Christians around the world. So-called " Islamophobia" is nothing of the sort. It is not FEAR of Islam, but rather recognition that Islam is an existensial threat to our way of life.

8. Ibrahim in UK wrote: People are instinctively afraid of anything and anyone new that they don't understand. There is a growing conservatism in the world that doesn't want change and feels insecure in the company of foreign cultures; the result is intolerance. Politicians and Media play a siginificant role in promoting negative stereotypes and normalising prejudices to suit their own agendas which include demonisation and inciting violence. Intolerance (including Islamophobia) is not compatible with British values. It is important to stress that prejudice and hatred does not strengthen British society or British identity, it only weakens it and makes it less humane.

9. Jodie in Virginia wrote: Stereotypes are the tool of dictators not democrats. We democrats, who are more and more seduced by the simplicity of stereotypes in our normal discussion, cross the line of enlightenment and warm the hearts of the bad guys, who know they have implanted rampant prejudice in otherwise free-thinking people. If Baroness Warsi had not defined the elephant in the room, we would miss the opportunity to look stereotyping in the eye and see it for what it is - a tool of hatred that erects walls between majorities and minorities, and then eats away at the democracy itself.

Section 5. Picture

Недоразумение

 

 

UNIT 3

Section 1. Практикум Линн Виссон

 

Текст 6

Выступление Э.А. Шеварднадзе в Гарвардском университете (1991 г.)

Speech by E.A. Shevardnadze, Harvard University, 1991

(Читается в нормальном и быстром темпах с американским акцентом)

1.Чтобы чувствовать себя уверенно в мире, в котором будет падать роль ядерного оружия, нам нужно знать, как мы сможем защититься от ядерного терроризма. В настоящее времясуществуют весьма точные неядерные вооружения, способные хирургическими ударами сорвать планы возможных террористов. Разумеется, эта проблема заслуживает самого серьезного рассмотрения.   Мы не должны забывать и другой благоприятствующий фак­тор — нашу способность достаточно точно знать, что происхо­дит в мире с точки зрениявоенной активности. Эта прозрачность мира будет только нарастать, а с нею повышаться наша уверен­ность, что все меньше и меньше будет неожиданностей, что все больше мы будем знать о происходящем в самых далеких уголках земного шара. Было бы невернымпредставлять дело так, будто все опасно­сти проистекают от ядерного, химического или бактериологиче­ского оружия. Просто этот ряд опасностей мы должны поста­раться свести к нулю, ибо они очень дорого могут стоить чело­вечеству.     Честно говоря, меня беспокоит то, что мы стали более тер­пеливыми к угрозе, скажем, ядерной катастрофы. Да, мир изме­нился. В нем нет более того острого военного противостояния, которое вызывало острый стрессбуквально у каждого человека.   2.Сейчас положение иное — политически и психологически. Но при всем том десятки тысяч ядерных зарядовостаются в арсе­налах ядерных держав. К сожалению, замедлились темпы разо­руженческих процессов. После первоначальных ярких успехов топчутся на местепереговоры по стратегическим ядерным воору­жениям, по запрещению химического оружия, неоправданноза­держалась ратификация Договора по обычным силам в Европе. Закончилось уничтожение всех ракет средней и меньшей дальности, подпадающих под действие договора. Но образовал­ся и разрыв в работе конвейера, работающего по уничтожению ракет. А военные заводы ведь продолжают работать, пусть даже не на прежнюю мощность. Нельзя оставить недостроенным то здание нового мира, ко­торое мы совместно взялись создать. Если мы не будем каждый день что-то надстраивать, то это здание придет в упадок, начнет деградировать. Этого нельзя допустить.Наши дети не простят нам упущен­ных шансов, ибо они получат в этом случаене такое хорошее об­разование, не лучшую медицинскую помощь и другие социаль­ные услуги.     3. Мы стоим еще в самом начале путив наших поисках того, как можно упорядочить торговлю обычным оружием, создать регио­нальные структуры безопасности, учредить механизмы по пред­отвращению возникновения кризисных ситуаций. Всем надо приспособиться к новым реалиям, к новому облику мира. Ведь сегодня он радикальным и даже неузнаваемым образом отличается от того, каким он был даже несколько лет тому на­зад. Позади остались не только «холодная война», длительные вооруженные конфликты в разных регионах мира.Сегодня мы го­ворим о единой Германии, как об элементарном факте жизни. Но разве все это было возможным еще пару лет назад? Пред­ставить себе подобное было трудно. Мир становится единым в своих действиях, в своих желани­ях избавиться от тяжкого наследия прошлого. Среди этого наследия и ядерные испытания, ядерные арсе­налы. В новой обстановке, на новом витке сознания общности человечества от них пора, можно и надо избавиться. Ученые во всех странахдолжны помочь людям осознать про­исшедшее, понять суть изменений и сказать, какую дорогу нам нужно избрать, чтобы не заблудиться в лесу жизни и политики. Нам всем нужен прогнозна будущее. Надо объединитьдля этого силы, выступающие за мир, свободу и демократию. Спасибо за внимание.

1.То feel confident/sure/to ensure a feeling of confidence in a world in which/the role of nuclear weapons will be diminished/will decline/nuclear weapons will play a less important role/will be less important/, we need to know how to defend/protect ourselves from nuclear terrorism. At the present time/now/currentlythere are/there exist highly accurate non-nuclear weapons, which through surgical strikes have the ability/capability/capacity to thwart/block/undermine the plans of possible/potential terrorists. Naturally/of course, /this problem merits/deserves the most serious consideration. We must/should not forget still/yet another positive factor: our ability to know with reasonable accuracy/quite/rather accurately what is taking place/happening/occurring/in the world from the point of view of/as regards military activity/as far as military activity is concerned.This transparency of the world will clearly/certainly continue to grow, along/together/with our enhanced/increased confidence that there will be less and less unexpected/surprise factors/ elements, and that we will know more and more/increasingly more about what is taking place/happening/ occurring/in the most remote corners of the globe/everywhere/throughout the world. It would be wrongto view the issue/to see things/as though all dangers are derived/stem from nuclear, chemical or bacteriological weapons. We must simply try to wipe out/ eliminate/rid ourselves of this category of/set of/these kinds of dangers, which otherwise may make mankind pay a very high price/may prove very costly to mankind. Frankly speaking, I am concerned by the fact that we have become more tolerant of such threats as that of nuclear disaster. Yes, the world has changed. It no longer is fraught with/contains/is characterized by that drastic/acute/military confrontationwhich imposed/caused terrible/enormous/drastic/acute stresson/for/each and every/literally each and every/individual/human being. 2.Today/Now the situation is different, politically and psychologically. Nevertheless, (dozens of) thousands of nuclear warheadsremain in the arsenals of the nuclear powers. Unfortunately, the rate/pace of progress in disarmament/the disarmament process, has slowed (down). After the first/initial striking successes, we see stalling/there is now a process of marking time/innegotiations on strategic nuclear weapons, on the prohibition of chemical weapons, and there has been an unwarranteddelay in the ratification of the treaty on conventional forces in Europe. The destruction of all intermediate and shorter range missiles has been completed, missiles covered by the treaty. But a gap has now appeared/emerged in the work of the assembly line for destroying missiles. And military plants are continuing their operations, although not at/at less than/their former capacity. We cannot leave unfinished that edifice/building/construction of a new world, which we have jointly undertaken to create. If we do not, every single day, add something to that structure/continue the building process, /the building will start to collapseand deteriorate/ decline and fall. That/cannot be allowed (to happen)/must not happen/must not be.Our children will not forgive us lost opportunities, for thenthey will not be getting such a good education, or the best medical care, or other social services. 3.We are still at the very beginning/first stagesof our search for ways to organize the trade/traffic in conventional weapons, to establish regional security arrangements/systems, to establish/set up machinery/mechanisms to prevent (the emergence/outbreak of) crisis situations. We must all adapt to new realities, to/the new face of the/a changed/different/world. For today, it is radically and even unrecognizably/staggeringly different from what it was only a few years ago. We have left behind both the Cold War and protracted/drawn-out/lengthy armed conflicts in various regions of the world.Today we speak of a united Germany as of an elementary/basic fact of life. But would/could all this really have been possible just a couple of/even two years ago? It would have been difficult to imagine something like this/of this sort/something similar. The world is becoming one — in its actions, in its desire/hope/ wish to rid itself of the onerous/burdensome legacy of the past. That legacy includes nuclear tests and nuclear arsenals. In a new situation, at a new level of awareness of mankind's sense of community/of what mankind has in common/shares, it is time to/there is a need to get rid of them/it is high time — and it is our obligation — to get rid of them. Scientists/scholars/academics/thinkers/inall countries must help people to become aware of/what has happened/the significance of events, to understand the thrust/point/of the changes and to point out/indicate/what road we need to take to avoid losing our way in the forest/thickets of life and politics.We all need a prognosisfor the future. For that, we need to unitethose forces which are championing/advocating/advancing peace, freedom and democracy.

Section 2. Phrasal Verbs

TAKE

1. Take yourself away! I won't stand your presence any longer. 2. I am at a loss how to take out that stain of yours. 3. They will take in only three lodgers this term. 4. His speech must be taken down in shorthand. 5. I was taken aback when I saw her alone in the restaurant. 6. I take a deep interest in his fate. 7. Didn't the boy take any notice of your warnings? 8. I'm sure he was taken in by that scoundrel. 9. He took to repeating his wife's words. 10. Who took the chair at the meeting yesterday? 11. Take care not to drop these plates. 12. A sponge can take up a lot of water. 13. Take it easy, everything will be settled. 14. He took to modelling animals since the age of ten. 15. May I take you to the station? 16. I take great pride in my daughter's accomplishments. 17. Will you take tea or coffee? 18. I haven't the courage to take it up alone, 19. The nurse took hold of the girl's hand and dragged her away.

1. Go away! I won't stand your presence any longer. 2. I am at a loss how to remove that stain of yours. 3. They will admit only three lodgers this term. 4. His speech must be written down in shorthand. 5. I was surprised when I saw her alone in the restau­rant. 6. I am deeply concerned about his fate. 7. Didn't the boy pay any attention to your warnings? 8. I'm sure he was deceived by that scoundrel. 9. He fell into the habit of repeating his wife's words. 10. Who presided at the meeting yesterday? 11. Be careful not to drop these plates. 12. A sponge can absorb a lot of water. 13. Don't worry, everything will be settled. 14, He went in for modelling ani­mals since the age of ten. 15. May I see you off to the station? 16. I'm very proud of my daughter's accomplishments. 17. Will you have tea or coffee? 18. I haven't the courage to undertake it alone. 19. The nurse seized the girl's hand and dragged her away.

 

Section 3. Typical Drill

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Urban legends. An urban legend is an apocryphal, secondhand story, told as true and just plausible enough to be believed, about some horrific, embarrassing, ironic or exasperating series of events that supposedly happened to a real person. Whether factual or not, an urban legend is meant to be believed. In lieu of evidence, however, the teller of an urban legend is apt to rely on skillful storytelling and reference to putatively trustworthy sources — e.g., " it really happened to my hairdresser's brother's best friend" — to convince hearers of its veracity.

 

1.The Clown Statue ……a few years ago a mother and a father decided they needed a break, so they wanted to head out for a night on the town. So they called their most trusted babysitter. When the babysitter arrived the two children were already fast asleep in bed. So the babysitter just got to sit around and make sure everything was okay with the children. Later in the night, the babysitter got bored and so she wanted to watch tv but she couldnt watch it downstairs because they didnt have cable downstairs (the parents didnt want their children watching too much garbage) so she called them and asked them if she could watch cable tv in the parents room. Of course the parents said it was ok, but the babysitter had one final request. She asked if she could cover up the large clown statue in their bedroom with a blanket or cloth, because “…..this clown statue is really creeping me out". The phone line was silent for a moment, and the father (who was talking to the babysitter at the time) said “..... take the children and get out of the house..... we'll call the police... we dont have a clown statue.....” She fled away via back door with both children. Some minutes later the police arrived and apprehended the " clown, " who was discovered to be a local sex offender….

2.The Driverless Car This happened in a little town in New Mexico. This guy was on the side of the road hitch hiking on a very dark night and in the middle of a storm. The night was cold and wet and no car went by. The storm was so strong he could hardly see a few feet ahead of him. Suddenly, he saw a car coming towards him and stop. The guy, without thinking about it, got in the car and closed the door - and only then realized that there's nobody behind the wheel! The car starts very slowly. The guy looks at the road and sees a curve coming his way. Scared, he starts to pray, begging for his life. Just before the car hits the curve, a hand appears thru the window and moves the wheel. The guy, paralyzed in terror, watched how the hand appears every time they are approaching a curve. The guy, gathering strength, gets out of the car and runs all the way to the nearest town. Wet and in shock he goes into a cantina, asks for two shots of tequila, and starts telling everybody about the horrible experience he just went through. A silence enveloped everybody when they realize the guy was crying hysterically and wasn't drunk. About half an hour later two guys walked into the same cantina and one said to the other... " Mira, Pedro, that's the Pendejo that got in the car while we were pushing it! " Happy Halloween!!

3.The Bristol Zoo Parking Attendant Outside the Bristol Zoo, in England, there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 coaches, or buses. It was manned by a very pleasant attendant with a ticket machine charging cars 1 pound (about $1.40) and coaches 5 (about $7). This parking attendant worked there solid for all of 25 years. Then, one day, he just didn't turn up for work. " Oh well", said Bristol Zoo Management, " we'd better phone up the City Council and get them to send a new parking attendant..." " Er... no", said the Council, " that parking lot is your responsibility." " Er... no", said Bristol Zoo management, " the attendant was employed by the City Council, wasn't he? " " Er... NO! " insisted the Council. Sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain, is a bloke who had been taking the parking lot fees, estimated at 400 pounds (about $560) per day at Bristol Zoo for the last 25 years. Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over 3.6 million pounds ($7 million). And no one even knows his name.

4. Humans Can Lick, Too (spook your friends on Halloween.) Once there was a nice old lady who had a lovely little dog. One day, the old lady heard on the radio that a crazy murderer had escaped from jail and that everybody should lock all doors and windows. So she locked every door and window in the house except one tiny one to let some air in. So that night she went to bed as usual. She knew everything was okay because when she put down her hand the dog licked it. But later in the night she heard a «drip, drip, drip». She put her hand down and the dog licked it and she thought everything was okay. But strange sounds continued and she went downstairs to check out the tap. But the tap wasn't dripping. So she went to bed again, put down her hand and the dog licked it again. Later in the night, though, she thought the dripping sound must be coming from the shower. She went into the bathroom, and there was her dog, dead, hanging in the shower, dripping with blood, all its intestines hanging out. Written on the mirror was: " Humans can lick, too! " And behind her in the mirror, she saw the murderer!

 

Section 4. Have Your Say

Should the government help incentivise marriage?

The government should help incentivise marriage through state financial support. In a speech, Mr Duncan Smith (Work and Pensions Secretary) has outlined why he thinks married couples should get tax breaks and why it's the government's job to encourage people to get married. The Liberal Democrats oppose the Conservative plans, with leader Nick Clegg calling tax breaks for married couples " patronising drivel that belongs in the Edwardian age".

Do you aspire to marry? What is stopping you from getting married? Is it time to make marriage a priority again? Or is marriage a thing of the past?