Some wrong reasons

It is sometimes thought that English has achieved its worldwide status because of its intrinsic linguistic features. People have claimed that it is inherently a more logical or more beautiful language than others, easier to pro­nounce, simpler in gram­matical structure, or larger in vocabulary. This kind of reasoning is the conse­quence of unthinking chau­vinism or naive linguistic thinking: there are no objective standards of logic or beauty to compare different languages, and questions of phonetic, grammatical, or lexical complexity are never capa­ble of simple answers. For example, English may not have many inflectional endings (which is what most people are thinking of when they talk about English as grammatically 'simple'), but it has a highly complex syntax; and the number of endings has no bearing on whether a language becomes used worldwide (as can be seen from the former success of Latin). Languages rise and fall in world esteem for many kinds of reasons-political, economic, social, religious, literary but linguistic reasons do not rank highly among them.

proceeding - [ p r q s J d i N ] -ведення справи, протоколу

civil service – державна служба

antecedent – [ x n t i s J d q n t ] -попереднє

permeate - [ p W m i e i t ] -проникати, розповсюджуватись

intrinsic – х[ i n t r i n s i k ] - внутрішній, притаманний, властивий

to rank -класифікувати

Discussion:

1. Name all the reasons why English has become a world language.

2. Is there anything you disagree with the author of the article?

3. What incentives are dominant in studying foreign languages?

4. Do you believe that in the future another language will replace English and become the world language? Why might it happen?

COMPULSIVE SHOPPING VIEWED AS ADDICTION

Pre-reading task

1. What sorts of addiction might people have? What kind of addiction is the most dangerous?

2. Explain the meaning of words: workaholic, chocoholic.

NEW YORK—A woman has 187 belts in her closets and drawers, most of them never worn or even looked at. A man thinks only the most expen­sive exercise bicycle will help enhance his physique, even though he already owns a lot of body-building equipment that he doesn't use. Such people are compulsive spend­ing addicts. Therapists at a New York psychiatric treatment center take the affliction as seriously as the problems of alcoholics and drug abusers. "They think that owning things makes them feel better," says Dr. Francesca Kress, director of psycho­logical assessment at the Hapworth Centers in New York City. "As their lives become more and more of a disaster, they will treat them­selves to something they can't afford," Kress says. "When material objects are used as a way to make yourself feel better, there's a problem," according to Kress, who treats addicts at Hapworth's compulsive spending addiction program. "Rather than deal with the problem, they think that they can go out and buy something to make themselves feel better," Kress says. "In our societies we're terribly materialistic – especially in North America," Kress points out. "We believe there's a God-given right to acquire things, to be capitalistic. It's almost a holy thing." Hapworth's compulsive spending treatment program is one of several that the medical facil­ity provides. It also runs programs for people addicted to alcohol, drugs, and tobacco or peo­ple with eating disorders. A 90-minute behavior evaluation costs $150 and Hapworth charges $90 for a private behav­ior therapy session and $50 for group therapy. The center says most insurance companies cover these costs. Besides helping patients stick to a budget and break their spending habits, Hapworth tries to get to the root of their problem.

enhance – [ q n h R n s ] - покращувати

physique – [ f I z I: k ] - фізичний стан, здоров’я

affliction – нанесення шкоди, шкідливий вплив

assessment – оцінювання

Дата добавления: 2015-10-02