Category Life in society

Work with a partner. Read the descriptions of the people who were interviewed in the left column. Then listen to parts of their interviews. Write the form of media thev are discussing in the rigliL column.

Person Type of media

Vanessa is 44 years old. She is a musician.

Felix is 65 years old. Now retired, he is building a house in Florida.

Richard is 75. He lives in a large city and loves to travel.

Now listen to the entire Interview with these three people. As you listen, take notes in the chart below on the positive and negative effects of the form(s) of media each person is discussing. Sometimes more than one form of media is discussed.

3 Compare your notes with your partner.

AFTER THE INTERVIEWS

DRAWING INFERENCES

Remember that when you listen, you should try to be aware of what people communicate indirectly, or infer, when they speak.

1 Decide whether you ihink the following statements correctly reflect what the people who were interviewed inferred. Write T (true) or F (false) next to each statement.

1 Eddie believes that video games can be entertaining.

_ 2 Eddie doesn’t like to waste time.

_____ 3 Leslie would not buy something because it was trendy.

__ 4 Leslie thinks that there are no good reasons to have cell phones.

___ 5 Ralph thinks that children should not watch TV.

6 Ralph thinks that parents should monitor all their childrens activities.

7 Vanessa gets all her news by watching TV.

___ 8 Vanessa thinks that it’s a good idea to make the news entertaining.

9 Felix believes that girls should be encouraged to participate in sports.

_ 10 Felix thinks that children should only watch educational programs.

11 Richard enjoys writing letters.

12 Richard has a fax machine.

Work with a partner. Check to see if you drew the same inferences. Explain why you thought each statement was either true or false. You may disagree about your answers.

THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT THE TOPIC

Work in a small group. Choose three of the following statements to discuss. Explain why you agree or disagree with each statement. Give examples to support your opinions.

1 The violence in video games has a very bad effect on teenagers.

2 Cell phones are essential items for today’s world.

3 Young children cannot understand the difference between imaginary things and real things.

4 TV news is a good way to stay well informed.

5 Parents should closely monitor their children’s TV viewing habits.

6 Modem machines and technology destroy a lot of the beauty in life.

1 Read the following passage.

Biology – detemiines what sex we are at birth – that is, whether we are male or female. However, society and culture determine our gender roles – that is, the socially learned patterns of behavior that distinguish boys from girls and men from women. Gender roles are learned through the process of socialization. In other words, we leant what society considers masculine and feminine as we grow up and interact with other people.

Becoming a man or woman is dramatically more complex now than it was a century ago. Boys and girls today have more freedom to explore their individuality and less

pressure to conform to traditional gender roles. For example, today both young men and young women can have jobs that were previously limited to only one sex. Children who are born today are given choices about the way males and females should behave and think. Many of todays gender roles were unthinkable in our parents’ or grandparents’ generations.

2 I Answer the following questions according to the information in the passage.

1 How do we learn about masculinity and femininity?

2 How have gender roles changed?

Read these questions and share your answers with a partner.

1 When you were a child, what did vour family, teachers, or friends tell you about mens and women’s behavior?

2 Do you think that gender roles will continue to change in the future? How?

PERSONALIZING THE TOPIC

1 Read the following list of personality traits. First, match the trail with the correct description. Then decide whether you believe these qualities are mostly biological (things you are born with) or mostly social (things you learn). For each trait, check (✓) the appropriate box. Then compare your answers with a partner.

Personality Mostly Mostly

Description Trait Biological Social

Now work as a group. Look at the list of trails below and write a short description for each one. Do you think that these traits are mostly biological or mostly social?

adventurous aggressive cowardly gentle helpful

kind nice responsible sweet thoughtful

Many individuals contributed to the production of this book. First and foremost, I would like to thank Bernard Seal, the series editor of Academic Encounters, whose vision and direction were constantly present. His sense of students’ needs as they enter the world of academic discourse is exceptional. The person who worked most closely with me during the development of the final manuscript was Kathleen O’Reilly, who also deserves inexpressible thanks. Her creativity, patience, and respect are beyond what any author could hope to find.

Furthermore, I would like to express my gratitude to Jane Mairs for her deft and experienced supervision of the project, to Louisa Hellegers for guidance, to Anne Garrett, the project editor, to Man Sandre for help with permissions, and to all the staff at Cambridge without u’hose “behind the scenes” efforts this book would never have come to fruition. Heartfelt thanks to Don Williams, the compositor, and Rich LePage, producer of the audio program, for their outstanding work.

Then, too, thanks to the people who form the centerpiece of the book: the interviewees and lecturers. You have been uniformly generous in providing me with hours of conversation and commentary, debating the various angles that might best capture students’ interests. Speaking with you, and now reading your ideas, I am struck bv what wonderful people I am privileged to know.

And to the students, faculty and administration at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College of the City University of New York, a special acknowledgement. No creative endeavor succeeds without a constant source of inspiration, and you have provided me with just such.

Carlos, Kelly, and Victor: what would I do without you?

Kim Sanabria

GUESSING VOCABULARY FROM CONTEXT

1 The following items contain important vocabulary from Part One of the lecture. Work with a partner. Using the context and your knowledge of related words, choose the best synonym for the words in bold.

__ 1 You get my point, right?

a understand me b agree with me c aren’t sure

3 Use your own notes to complete the notes in step 1.

Compare the notes you took on your own paper and your completed notes lor step 1 with a partner.

Listening for numerical information is an important skill to practice because conversations, interviews, and lectures often include this type of information.

1 Before you listen to some information about trends in the American family, read the following questions and answers about current trends in family structure. Do you think the answers are true or false? For each answer, circle either T (true) or F (false). Compare your predictions with a partner.

Now listen to the information about trends in the family and check whether your predictions were correct. Cross out any false information in the "Answers" column and write in the correct information. Compare your answers with your

► PLAY

Q AMERICAN VOICES: Robert and Carlos

In this section you will hear Robert talk about growing up in an extended family. Then you will hear Carlos discuss how he was raised in a single-parent home.

BEFORE THE INTERVIEWS

PERSONALIZING THE TOPIC

Thinking about vour own experiences and ideas related to a topic can help you understand and remember the information that you hear.

1 Work with a partner and compare your family backgrounds. Use the chart below each question to make notes about your and your partner’s answers.

1 How many people were there in your household when you were a child? Who were they?

2 In what ways was your family typical of other families in your community? Tn what ways was it different?

3 What important lessons did you learn from your family? Can you describe one? For example, did anyone in your family ever explain to you why it was necessary to act a certain way?

Work with a different partner and compare the information you wrote down in your charts.

INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT: Growing up in an extended family

Here are some words and phrases from the interview with Robert printed in bold and given in the context in which you will hear them. They are followed by definitions.

Probably the most important influence in my life was my family: something that makes a strong impression on yon

not just my mother and father, but my extended family: a family that includes many relatives such as cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and several generations I grew up very close to my family: closely connected by love for each other and tune spent together

I never really sought people out besides mv family: looked for My grandfather wasn’t retired: was still working

He was more protective of us than my mother was: watched over us closely some of my best traits: characteristics

Families are not necessarily blood relations: genetically related; related by blood