05 Reading Social Science 2

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Reading Social Science

ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES 77

READING AN ACADEMIC TEXT

In groups discuss the questions below.1. What is prejudice?2. Why can prejudice become a big problem in a country like Indonesia?3. Can you give an example of prejudice that you experienced or have heard or read about?

Read the following text and do the exercises.

The Nature of Prejudice

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Most people will admit that the relation between various ethnic and racial groups is apotential source of problems for a culturally diverse society such as the United States.

Most rational people will also agree that prejudice plays an important role in themisunderstandings, intolerance, and even hostility that may develop and persist betweensuch groups. If our objective is to minimize these problems, one necessary step is toaddress the issue of prejudice.

Research has clearly established that prejudice exists and that a person expressing aprejudiced view may be unaware that it is in fact biased. An interesting experiment,which is often cited in educational textbooks, was conducted in 1971 to determine thepotential effects of prejudice on the judgments of future U.S. school teachers.

1 The

researcher made videotapes of three children speaking to an adult. The camera anglewas such that the childrens faces were not visible; however, it was obvious from thetapes that the children were speaking and that they were racially different (one was

white; one was African American; the third was Mexican American). A soundtrackcontaining exactly the same conversation in English with the same American voice was

added to the tapes. Each tape was played to one of three groups of student teachers.Their task was to judge the correctness of the speech of the child they had seen on thevideotape.

1F. Williams, J.L. Whitehead, and L.M. Miller, Ethnic stereotyping and judgements of childrens speech, Speech Monographs

38 (1971), pp. 166-70


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ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES78

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Although they actually heard the same voice and conversation, the student teachersmisjudged the language of the African American and Mexican American children andfound it to be less like good standard English than that of the white child (see Figure 1).

These results may be interpreted as showing the existence and effect of prejudice in thestudent teachers. They were basing their judgments on a previously formed opinion,namely that Mexican Americans and African Americans dont speak S tandard Englishas well as white Americans. In addition, this opinion was strong enough to affect theirperception of objective reality.

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Since prejudice is associated with insufficient knowledge, we often assume that we canreduce it simply by replacing ignorance with knowledge. However, such an assumptionis clearly unjustified. In the experiment described in the preceding paragraphs, prejudicesuccessfully resisted change. In spite of hearing evidence that contradicted theirpreviously held ideas, the student teachers did not revise their prejudices. Instead, theypersisted with them and found the English on one tape to be superior to the same

English on the other two tapes.

Thus, the real problem here seems not to be prejudice itself but the persistence ofprejudice. To address this problem rationally and scientifically, we need answers atleast to the following questions. Under what circumstances does prejudice resistchange? Are there different kinds of prejudice, and if so, are there some types morepersistent than others? What types of experience can change prejudiced views? Fromthese as yet unanswered questions, it is clear that he remedy for social prejudice will bemore complex than merely providing objective information to those in need of it.

A.

Checking the Main IdeasHere are the main ideas for this passage. Write the correct paragraph number beside its main idea.

_______

_______

_______

_______

_______

Reducing prejudice with correct information will not be easy because prejudice is

difficult to change.

We need research into why people revise their prejudiced opinions and why they dont.

The write describes an experiment investigating prejudice in future U.S. school-

teachers.

To lessen the problems of racial intolerance and hostility, we need to understandprejudice.

The student teachers showed the effects of unconscious prejudice when they misjudgedthe English of African-American and Mexican-American children.


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B. Answer the following questions and give explanations based on the information in the passage.

1. What often becomes a source of problems in a society that consists of many difference races?

2. What should be done to decrease such problems according to the writer of this article?

3. Is it possible to be prejudiced and not realize that this prejudice is affecting your judgment?

4. How many stages were there in the experiment?

5. Describe what was done in each stage.

6. What conclusion(s) can be drawn from the results of the experiment?

C.Referents

What do the following words/phrases refer to?

these problems in line 5 refers to .

they in line 13 refers to ..

they in line 19 refers to ..

we in line 27 refers to .

it in line 28 refers to

such an assumption in line 28 refers to .

this problem in line 35 refers to .

D. Writers sometimes express the same ideas with very different grammar and vocabulary. This exercisewill help you identify such occurrences.

Read the first sentence in each example carefully. Then read each of the two following sentences todecide if they are the same or different in meaning to the first sentence. Write S when the sentenceexpresses the same idea as the first sentence. Write Dwhen it expresses a different idea.

1. The government has committed itself to maintaining taxes at their present level.

a. The government has stated publicly that it will need to raise taxes. _______

b. The government has promised not to raise taxes. _______

2. Despite the problems, governments of some Third World countries persist in developing health-careprograms like those in Western countries.

a. In spite of problems, developing countries continue to use the patterns established inWestern countries for their own healthcare systems. ________

b. Problems are forcing developing countries to pursue healthcare policies that are distinct fromthose of Western nations. _______

3. According to the latest poll, a large majority of people agree with the governments immigrationpolicy.

a. The most recent poll shows that most people are in favour of the governments policy on

immigration. ________


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b. The latest poll indicated approval of the governments immigration policy by a greatmajority of people. ________

4. It is not likely that the view of prejudiced people can be changed merely by providing informationthat contradicts these views.

a. People who are prejudiced do not like to be contradicted. ________b. Just supplying information that shows their views are wrong will probably not be enough to

make biased people change these views. _________

5. Some people believe that ethnic tension and hostility are inevitable in a culturally diverse society.

a. Some people believe that a multicultural society is capable of preventing ethnic tension andhostility. ________

b. It is thought by some that there is certain to be ethnic tension and hostility in a multiculturalsociety. ________

E. Vocabulary

What do the words misunderstanding, intolerance, and unaware all begin with?

What are these called?

What is their function?

Can you find other examples of such words in the text?

Find more examples for each type in your dictionary.


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Pre-reading activity

In groups of five or six, consisting of both males and females, discuss the questions above. Be prepared toshare your findings with the class.

When do you usually listen to music? Does music affect you? How does it affect you?

What kind of music do you prefer?

1 From simple folksongs to the complex sound of a symphony orchestra, music has been created by every

known society. Almost every pivotal event in life can be signposted with music, whether it's a joyfuloccasion like a wedding or a sad one such as a funeral. Music, which consistently emerges in surveys asthe most popular form of art, can be used not only to tap into an emotion a person is already feeling, but

to manipulate it in a powerful way. Yet the existence of music mystifies scientists. It is not a primarymeans of communication, unlike language. While human beings are the only species to make musicalinstruments, music does not seem to help us to live longer or pass on our genes more efficiently. So whatpurpose does it serve?

2 Participants at the American Association for the Advancement of Science recently attended aperformance of the kind of music Neanderthal man might have heard. Working from fragments ofmusical instruments found alongside Neanderthal relics in Slovenia in 1995, Or Jelle Atema from Boston

University crafted a flute from the 50,000-year-old leg-bone of a bear. His replica showed the flute wasnot a sophisticated instrument in fact, it had a range of less than one octave but it was aninstrument nonetheless. Dr Atema's guess is that cavemen used the instrument to attract prospectivemates. Although some psychologists feel this is somewhat feeble and doesn't really explain why acavewoman should find a caveman flutist more appealing than a tone-deaf rival, the question remains.After all, something must explain why our ancestors were creating music 200,000 years ago.

3 Psychologists are united in one beliefthat music speaks to the heart. What is more, the evidence thatmusic elicits emotion is startlingly direct. A Cornell University study showed recently that certain piecesof music induce physiological changes in the body that correspond to certain emotions. "Sad" piecescaused the pulse to slacken, the blood pressure to rise and the temperature to drop, which is exactly whathappens when a sense of sadness sets in. "Happy" songs did the opposite, inducing a cheery feeling.

Somehow, music can tap into sensitive emotion circuits.


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4 Geoffrey Miller, a scientist at University College, London, thinks it is clear that music has all thehallmarks of an adaptive behavior, meaning it was a factor in selecting a mate. "It is universal across

cultures, and kids are motivated spontaneously to learn how to play music around the age of puberty,"says Dr Miller. He recently conducted an intriguing study of 3,000 jazz albums. The peak age of the

performers was 30, and there were ten male performers for every one female. "That's the same age at

which other cultural displays peak, such as painting, poetry and philosophy," Dr Miller points out.

5 Musical talent, he says, can indicate many desirable qualities in a mate: the mental competence to learnnotes and lyrics; the social intelligence required to be part of an orchestra and co-operate, literally

harmoniously, with other people, creativity and energy. But just because musical competence may haveonce signaled a good mate doesn't necessarily mean that every modern woman is searching for thatqualityhuman beings have come to differ in their preferences.

6 Dr Adrian North, a music psychologist at Leicester University, surveyed Staffordshire teenagers last year

about what kind of music they listen to and why. "The findings were almost too stereotypical to be true,"says Dr North. "While the girls listened to music which influences their mood, boys used music as a wayof impressing their friends. Boys seem to like rock and raps because it shows how cool, trendy and

macho they are. Boys use music as a badge of identity; it's a way of telling people about who you are."He also adds that an individual's choice of music directly influences attractiveness. However, Dr Northshies away from saying that music has evolved as a mechanism for mate selection.

7 Stephen Pinker, the American psychologist, does not subscribe to the view that music has evolved as away of showing off to prospective mates. "Compared with language, vision, social reasoning andphysical know-how, music could vanish from our species and the rest of our lifestyle would be virtuallyunchanged," he writes in How the Mind Works. Directly contradicting Dr Miller, he concludes: "Musicshows the clearest signs of not being an adaptation."

8 So if music confers no survival advantage, why does it exist? Pinker calls it "auditory cheesecake", aconfection of sounds put together to tickle faculties that our brain already possesses. In his view, songs

with lyrics appeal to a brain already attuned to language; the ear is sensitive to harmonies, and sounds inthe natural world, such as birdsong and even thunder, echo such harmonies; we derive pleasure frompatterns and rhythm, and repetitive sounds appeal to the ear in the same way that a repeated doodleappeals to the eye.

9 But how does music "move" us? Last week scientists from the University of Manchester revealed thatloud music stimulates a part of the inner ear called the sacculus, which is connected to the hypothalamus,the brain's "pleasure centre". This could explain why music is so evocative. Interestingly, the sacculusexists only in fish and human beings (it came from a common ancestor). That might shed light on whyhuman beings alone attach such importance to making music. The sacculus responds only to music,

which suggests one reason why music, rather than any other form of sound, inspires such delight. (930

words)

A. Read the article carefully and answer the following questions concerning the main ideas of the article.

1. What aspect of music is discussed in this article?

2. What is unusual about the performance participants at the American Association for theAdvancement of Science recently attended?

3. What is Dr Atemas theory about music?

4. Which scientist agrees with Dr Atemas theory? Explain why.

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Who has made similar discoveries but does not support Dr Atemas theory? What is his theory?6. Who opposes his theory strongly? What is his theory?


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7. What have the scientists from the University of Manchester found out about why music influences usso much?

B. Read the text again to find the following details.

1. What skill makes human beings different from other species?

2. Why did Dr Atema make a musical instrument out of the bones of an ancient bear?

3. What theory about music do all scientists support?

4. What did Dr Miller base his research on?

5. What does he think musical talent can indicate in terms of human character?

6. Who were the subjects of the Dr Norths survey?

7. What is the title of a book written by Stephen Pinker?

8. What is the sacculus? Why is it important?

C. Find the meanings of the following words as used in this text and other possible meanings. Use adictionary if necessary.

1. pivotal (para. 1)2. feeble (para. 1)

3. tone-deaf (para. 2)4. startlingly (para.3)

5. tap (para. 3)

6. hallmarks (para. 4)7. signaled (para. 5)

8. subscribes (para. 7)9. tickle (para.8)

10. evocative (para. 9)

Fill in the blanks with a suitable word from the list above. You might need to change the form of the word to

suit the context.

1. Engineers are developing ways of ____________ the power of the sun and wind to produceelectricity in remote villages.

2. He loves to ____________ his baby sister because she starts laughing out loud.

3. There is only one requirement to join this choir. You must not be ______________.

4. He made a _____________ discovery about the origins of the Betawi people.

5. These traditional cakes and cookies are _____________ of my childhood which I spent in a remotevillage in Minahasa.

6. Indonesia has to work hard to retain its _____________ role in Asian politics.

7. The governments new policy _____________ its seriousness in improving the countrys economiccondition.

8. The bomb explosions that have occurred around the country all bear the ______________ of terroristattacks.

9. If you want to improve your English, its a good idea to _____________ to the Jakarta Post.

10.Her attempts to justify her plans were so ____________ that no one was willing to support her.


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D. Writing

Write a short summary of about 200 words based on the answers to the questions in part A. Use yourown words as far as possible.


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Pre-reading Activity

In groups of four or five discuss the following questions.

What kind of media is most popular today?Did it replace the popularity of any other media? If so, what?What is a traditional way of spreading messages in a traditional village?Do you think that the book will eventually be replaced by the internet in the next few decade?

Bones to Phones

Radio survived, the pneumatic mail didn't. Books are still here, but the Inca quipu aren't. Why do some media

die while others live on, asks Margaret Wertheim.

1 With no books, no TV, no Internet, just how did our forebears exercise their minds around the

campfire back in Palaeolithic times? One pastime seems to have been bone-notching. Across Europe andthe Middle East, early humans took to etching parallel lines and crosses into pieces of bone. Why theydid this is still a mystery, though present thinking is that the bones served as tally sticks or even a formof lunar calendar. Whatever their purpose, the bones were clearly important, or they would not have beenused for so long - about 90,000 years. "I doubt very much that any form of media we have today willsurvive that long," declares Bruce Sterling with heartfelt admiration.

2 Sterling, a Texas-based science-fiction writer, is a man who shouldknow about such matters. He hasspent much of the past five years sifting through the dustbins of history in search of dead media. He andfellow writer Bruce Kadrey are assembling an archive of the dead and dying. Their only criteria are thata device must have been used to create, store or communicate information, and that it must be deceased -or at least down to its last gasp.

3 Appropriately, for a project about the transience of media, the Dead Media Project is housed on theInternet. Sterling and Kadrey set the ball rolling, but ultimately it is a communal effort, relying on acadre of selfless workers around the globe who scour historical sources for arcane, obscure, forgottenand abandoned media. Most of these arenot academic historians, just self-professed obsessives.

4 At present, the official archive, knownas the Dead Media Working Notes,contains more than 400 listings. Take, forexample, the inuksuit - huge stone relicsthat dot the Arctic landscape of NorthAmerica. Their builders, theInuit, used them as travel

guides. By learning theshapes of individualsculptures and thesequences in which theyappeared, the Inuit couldtravel vast distances overunfamiliar ground withoutgetting lost. Then there arethe lukasa, used by the Luba people of Zaire. These handheld wooden objects, which were studded withbeads or pins or incised with ideograms, were used to teach lore about cultural heroes, clan migrations andsacred matters. Yet the symbols they carried were not direct representations of information, but designedto jog the user's memory.

The inuksuit wereused as travelguides by the Inuit.

Many cities in thenineteenth century

had pneumatic

mail systems.


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5 In the category called "Dead Physical Transfer Systems", one group stands out - the multifarioussystems designed to deliver mail. Pigeon posts have been around for 4,000 years, starting with theSumerians. More recently, at the end of the nineteenth century, many cities boasted pneumatic mailsystems made up of underground pipes. Telegrams and letters shot through the tubes in canisterspropelled by compressed air. But perhaps the most bizarre postal innovation was missile mail. On 8 June

1959, at the behest of the US Post Office Department, the submarine USS Barbero fired a missilecontaining 3,000 letters at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida. The postal service'swebsite quotes an official at the time saying: "Before man reaches the Moon, mail will be deliveredwithin hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missile." Sadly, thetrial did not spark off a postal revolution.

6 With his knowledge of media fossils and what has lived on, has Sterling noticed any qualities thatselect for survival? "It really depends on the society that gave birth to it," he says. "It helps a lot if it isthe nerve system of how government information is transmitted." At the very least, he argues, successfulmedia need a close association with some form of power in society. The Inca quipu illustrates the point.The Inca did not write, but kept records on complex arrangements of coloured, knotted strings, someweighing up to twenty kilograms and carrying tens of thousands of knots. These knots were tied by anofficial class - the Inca equivalents of historians, scribes and accountants.

7 Unfortunately, the quipu did not survive long, but were burnt by the Spanish invaders. Thisdemonstrates, as Sterling puts it, that media can be murdered. He believes that but for the Spanish, quipucould have been taken a great deal further. They are his favourite dead media. "One of the things thatreally fascinates me is that they were networks," he says. "They had directories and even subdirectories,and all this just with strings and knots."

8 Kadrey has noted another feature of long-lasting media: they tend to be simple. There are systemsfor sending messages with light, which have been invented time and again, starting with the Babylonians,Romans and Imperial Chinese, who operated a network of fires along the Great Wall. Before theinvention of electrical telegraphy, the Russians, Czechs, British and Australians all experimented withoptical telegraphy. These attempts may vary in their levels of sophistication but they're all based on thesame simple idea. "All a person needs is a shiny thing and the Sun," says Kadrey.

9 Another shining example that draws the admiration of both Sterling and Kadrey is that old standby,the book. "I have this argument all the time," Kadrey says. "So many people today claim that the book isdead. I don't believe it for a minute," he says. "It's a very powerful technology. Books are so dumb, justink on a page, but they've lasted so long!"

(935 words)

A.Read the text carefully answer these questions.1. What is the earliest form of media known?2. What are Sterling and Kadrey trying to do?3. What is interesting about the men who are involved in the project all over the world?4. Name two examples and give a brief description of dead media that they have found.

5.

What is meant by the category Dead Physical Transfer Systems?6. What qualities must a media have to survive?7. What examples does he give to support his theory?8. What does Sterling think about the fate of books?

9. Why did the writer choose the title Bones to Phones?

B. Scan the text quickly to find the following details.1. What are Stering and Kadrey by profession?2. How long did bone notching survive?3. Where were the inuksuitfound?

4. Who first used pigeons to send messages?

5. What happened on June 8th

, 1959?6. What is pneumatic mail?


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7. What did the Inca quipu consist of?8. How did people around the Great Wall in China communicate in the past?

Vocabulary

C.In this text the writer used two word verbs and several idiomatic expressions to make the style lessformal.

1. Match the verb phrase of expression with a synonym on the right.2. Choose five expressions and use them in your own sentences to make the meaning clear.

1. took to2. sifting through3. down to the last gasp4. set the ball rolling5. to jog the memory

6. have been round7. spark off8. taken a great deal further9. time and again

a. to help one remember somethingb. to startc. have existedd. developede. examine carefully

f. repeatedlyg. cause something to developh. to the very endi. develop a liking for

D. Some words are created by joining two words together. Campfire for examples consists of twowords camp and fire and it means a wood fire made in the open air by campers. These wordsmay function as nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs. Some words are separated by a hyphen, bone-notching whereas others are separated, such as lunar calendar. These words are known ascompound words. Find other examples of such words and explain their meaning.

Writing:

Write a short summary of about 150 words of the article Bones to Phones.

05 Reading Social Science 2

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