Мгимо 2005
|
Скачать 1.27 Mb.
|
THEME Three All Work and No Play16 Discuss the following questions before reading the text:
17 The following words and phrases appear in the passage. In what context do you think they appear? • suicide • rewards and opportunities • financial independence • potentially damaging consequences
Stress, sleeplessness, depression, heart disease, shortness of temper, memory loss, anxiety, marital breakdown, child delinquency, the decline of local neighbourhoods, rudeness, suicide, - a mere shortlist of some of the symptoms of the postmodern malaise. The cause of all our woes? The prime suspect - work. Wicked, wicked work. An avalanche of surveys, polls and expert commentaries show that we all work too long, too hard; that our bosses are beastly; that we are insecure and afraid. You know all this stuff. We seem to be workers on the verge of a nervous breakdown. So far, so bad. But there's plenty of good news about work, too even if it is not always shared with the same enthusiasm as the 'Work is Terrible' stories. Four out of ten UK workers declare themselves 'very satisfied' with their jobs, more than in France, Germany, Italy or Spain. Work has become our national obsession. Whether we are damning the impact of work on our health, our families, our time, or celebrating its new-found flexibility, rewards and opportunities, we are talking, writing and thinking about work like never before. As with so many obsessive relationships, the one with work is a love-hate one. Confusion reigns. Mixed messages are everywhere - on the one hand, the government bangs on and on about the importance of paid work, and then cautions about the impact of too much paid work on families. Women celebrate the economic independence work brings, then are made to feel guilty about their children. Salaries go up, but few of us feel richer. We find a job we love and so work long hours at it, and then feel that we are failing to get our 'work/life' balance right. Why is work under the microscope? Why all the angst? Perhaps because our work simply occupies a more important place in our lives than it did. Maybe we care, and worry, more about work for the same reason we care and worry so much about our children or our health - because it is important to us. Men and (for the first time in centuries) women are placing work closer to the centre of their lives. And maybe that's no bad thing. The 'leisure society' would probably have been a boring place in any case. Our work fixation springs from a series of profound changes in the nature of employment, all of which push work more deeply into our individual lives, our families and our communities. Work has become a more important element of our personal identity; we have greater control and choice over the shape of our working lives; women have entered and transformed the workplace; the nine-to-five has become more sociable; more of us want or need the financial independence that a wage offers; and the economic rewards of working have increased - work pays. Work has become a more important personal identity tag, replacing the three traditional indicators of our uniqueness - place, faith and blood. As geographical roots have weakened, religious affiliations have diminished and the extended family has dispersed, how we spend our labouring hours has become a more important window into our souls. This trend reflects and reinforces a desire for work which brings personal fulfilment, for work we are proud of. If work means not just income but identity, then the choice of job becomes critical. This is why tobacco companies find it so hard to hire people - to work for them would be to taint your own identity. But the new salience of work has come with a price; fewer people are able to feel secure; the need to keep pace with change is tiring and stressful; white-collar workers are putting in longer hours to try and keep a toehold - with 70 potentially damaging consequences for the children; and the deification of work threatens to push those who are outside the paid workforce further towards the margins of society. This would not matter so much if work did not matter so much. Not just in terms of income, but in terms of identity. When work becomes more than simply a passport to a pay cheque, when it opens the door to friends, purpose, satisfaction and a place in the world, its absence is more keenly felt. Once we admit the centrality of work to our lives, it might be harder to kid ourselves that we are doing older employees a favour by 'letting them go'. But we dare not admit work's importance to us. We like to moan about it, preferably with work colleagues just after work. One publisher says: "I love my job, but I feel embarrassed even saying that. My parents think it is sad that the only friends I've got are through work - but I don't see the problem. Funnily enough, we've got lots in common!" The love of your job is now the only one that dare not speak its name. The idea of work as intrinsically bad has poisoned us for too long. The poet and mystic Kahlil Gibran said that work was "love made visible". Wouldn't it be great if we could capture a bit of that spirit, even if just for a while? 18 Look at the following words and try to explain them. • child delinquency • malaise, avalanche • obsession • bang on and on • fixation, nine-to-five • affiliations • window into our souls • salience • keep a toehold • deification • margins • to kid oneself • intrinsically 19 Find synonyms for the following words. • woe • wicked •reign • caution • angst 20 Answer the following questions:
21 Answer the questions in a summarised way (one sentence).
22 Write seven sentences (according to the number of paragraphs) summing up the contents of each paragraph. Language Focus Giving and Reacting to Surprising News 23 Below are boxes which contain useful language for giving and reacting to surprising news.
In pairs, use language from the boxes and follow the outline to act out dialogues about the situations described below.
Speaker A – Greet Speaker B Speaker B – Return greeting, introduce news Speaker A – Encourage B to continue Speaker B – Give more information Speaker A – express surprise Speaker B – Finish the news A: Hi, Jenny. B: Oh, hi, Bob. Listen, you’ll never guess what scandal the Fedders are involved in. A: I’m all ears … B: Well, Charlotte tells me that she is going to divorce John. A: Are you serious? … B: Absolutely! She has already filed for the divorce. … TALKING POINTS 24 Do you think the workplace is becoming more competitive? Why? What would you value most in the workplace? Rank the following in order of importance. Explain the choice.
A good working environment is very important, as it is difficult to be productive in a dirty and noisy environment. A worker only can benefit from healthy environment. 25 Discuss the following proverbs and quotations. Paraphrase them, say if you agree or not, and explain why.
VOCABULARY of the UNIT 26 A Study the meanings of the words. Provide Russian equivalents. Translate the examples. Welfare n the money that is paid by the government to people without jobs; to live/be on welfare means you depend on the welfare system for money to live; to sign on for social welfare to apply for state-financed social services, e.g. health, insurance, pensions Benefit n the money that people receive from the government if they have no job, do not earn a lot, or are sick housing benefit regular payments towards your rent unemployment benefit regular payments to people who do not have a job; sick(ness) benefit fringe benefits apart from the salary, employers may offer extra things, such as a company car, bonus schemes, free health insurance, holiday pay, free food to be in receipt of benefit Allowance n 1. an amount of money that someone receives regularly, which they do not earn by working rent allowance 2. Am a small amount of money that children receive from their parents every week Bonus n money added to smb’s pay; Lis earned a $500 bonus for being the best salesperson of the year. Dole n money that is given by the government to people who are unemployed; Unemployment benefit or jobless benefit is also called, informally the dole to go/be on the dole- receive/begin to receive such payments Proceeds n money gained from the sale of smth; the proceeds of the book Metropolis (the) n a chief city of the capital city of a country; an important centre of a particular activity: a business metropolis Accommodation n a place to live or work in; house, flat, hotel, etc. to accommodate Shanty town n an area, esp. outside a large city, where many poor people have built temporary huts and shanties Slum n an area or street of dirty, crowded houses; a slum clearance campaign |
Похожие:
 |
Инструкция по поступлению уважаемые абитуриенты! Одинцовского филиала мгимо. Таким образом, при успешном прохождении конкурса (в том числе на программы Одинцовского филиала) происходит... |
 |
Международных отношений (университет) Испанский язык в контексте диалога культур: исследования и преподавание / El español en el espacio intercultural: investigación y... |
|
Международных отношений (университет) мид россии Доклады и тезисы IV международной научной конференции испанистов 1 – 4 апреля 2010 года, мгимо (Университет) мид россии / Отв редактор... |
|
Суворова Юлия Константиновна Аспирант Кафедры востоковедения мгимо... В заключении автор приходит к выводу о том, что интересы Катара и Саудовской Аравии схожи, однако имеются и некоторые противоречия,... |
|
Книга это не просто мемуары политического деятеля. Это поучительные... «Сингапурская история. Из «третьего мира» – в первый»: мгимо (У) мид россии; М.; 2005 |
|
Закон калининградской области от 02. 03. 2005 n 507 (ред от 21. 12.... Закон калининградской области от 02. 03. 2005 n 507 (ред от 21. 12. 2005) "Об утверждении областной целевой Программы "Льготные лекарства... |
|
Радио 6 маяк, Новости, 26. 07. 2005, 20: 00: 00 6 Ведомости, Руднева Елена, Никольский Алексей, Николаева Анна, 27. 07. 2005, №136, Стр. А2 9 |
|
Первый канал, Новости, 09. 06. 2005, 15: 00: 00 14 Ведомости, Панов Андрей, Петрачкова Александра, Гончарова Оксана, 10. 06. 2005, №105, Стр. А3 20 |
|
2005 удк ббк п Гимназия в условиях модернизации общего образования: 25 26 марта 2004г. Спб.: Политехника, 2005. – 103 с |
|
Первый канал, новости, 14. 10. 2005, Кокорекина Ольга, 12: 00 8 Нтв, воскресный вечер с владимиром соловьевым, 16. 10. 2005, Соловьев Владимир, 22: 00 24 |
|
Радио 8 маяк, новости, 12. 05. 2005, Максимова, 13: 00 8 Ведомости, Никольский Алексей, Кашин Василий, 13. 05. 2005, №84, Стр. А2 13 базы строгого режима. 15 |
|
Первый канал, Новости, 17. 03. 2005, 12: 00: 00 14 Ведомости, Николаева Анна, Никольский Алексей, Воронина Анфиса, Егорова Татьяна, 18. 03. 2005, №47, Стр. А1 38 |
|
Первый канал, новости, 05. 12. 2005, Кокорекина Ольга, 12: 00 12 Ведомости, Использованы материалы "Интерфакса" и "Прайм-тасс, 06. 12. 2005, №229, Стр. А3 27 |
|
Руководство для пользователей по работе с web-интерфейсом Государственный контракт №12/2005 от 11. 05. 2005, заключенный между фк и ООО «отр 2000» |
|
Радио 19 маяк, новости, 13. 10. 2005, Максимова, 14: 00 19 Ведомости, Никольский Алексей, Николаева Анна, Гончарова Оксана, Кудашкина Екатерина, 14. 10. 2005, №193, Стр. А1 23 |
|
Закон пермской области от 04. 07. 2005 n 2309-510 "о внесении изменения... Указ губернатора Пермской области от 11. 01. 2005 n 4 "об утверждении порядка обеспечения льготными медикаментами для лечения вич-инфекции... |