Pre-reading task. 1. Is emigration common nowadays?

1. Is emigration common nowadays?

2. Have you ever seriously considered emigration? Why or why not?

Many people around the world are dissatisfied with their living conditions. They suffer from poverty, discrimination, lack of education, lack of job opportunities, lack of freedom, etc. One way to try to solve these problems is to move to another country. This doesn't necessarily mean that their problems will be solved. In fact, they will encounter many new problems upon arriving in a new country, such as having to learn a new language, getting used to new customs, etc. Nevertheless, people continue to emigrate. One of their most common destinations is the United States.

It is hard. It is hard to turn the key and lock the door. Hard to leave, probably forever, the little white house in the Peloponnesian town of Argos. The little house was given to Nikki Kaffas when she married Theodosios twelve years ago, and the tears come to her eyes as she speaks of "the wonderful garden and the birds that sing all day. Now we must leave it all behind. But they tell me America is a nice place." Theodosios Kaffas is determined to make it so. A barber who had to go out of business, a restaurant cook who couldn't earn more than $300 a month, he has dreamed of going to America ever since he was a boy. Now he is 36. "Argos is a good place for those who own fields and orange trees." says Kaffas, "but the workers are better paid in America. I want a better life for my family. I want to educate my children." Victor Valles Solan, too, is greatly concerned about his children. He has five of them, and in Cuba, where he once had a small steel factory, he began to feel that they were becoming slaves of the state. "We were allowed only one liter of fresh milk every other day," says Valles, 46, "but what is more important is that every day the children learned Communist ideas in the schools and going to church was never talked about. I realize that I am going to the United States with many illusions," but for me your country is the place on earth where democracy is strongest."

Dr. Brian Pethica already knows the U.S. well, and he has no problems, political or financial. Now 49, a chemist at the Unilever Company in Port Sunlight, near Liverpool, Pethica has been crossing the Atlantic at least once a year since 1958, and he likes his job. But he wants to teach. He says, "The university system in England seems somehow less open. In the U.S. there are many different kinds of schools, which allows you to educate everyone as far as he can go. That opportunity to have a richer life is an American quality." Last week, these voyagers all left for America, just in time to celebrate their first July 4 holiday. The Kaffases, with their two children of 11 and 8, were going to Philadelphia, where Nikki's brother hopes to find Theodosios work in a restaurant. Victor Valles Solan took his family to Melrose Park, Illinois, where he has a job in a factory. Dr. Pethica was going to Potsdam, New York, where he will become a dean of the school of arts and sciences at Clarkson College. These are just a few of the new immigrants who today are entering America. Their goals are somewhat different from those of earlier immigrants. Political problems are still an important cause of immigration, but religious problems are no longer a major cause. The new immigrants do occasionally talk of getting rich, but they know this is no longer a land of gold rushes and oil discoveries. Yet they do see in America something that many Americans take for granted or even forget they possess – freedom. That means not only freedom from discrimination and hunger but also from unbreakable social class systems and ignorance. To many, America is still the promised land. The newcomers find out soon enough that the United States too has its share of poverty and prejudice, but in their eyes it is nevertheless a kind of Utopia.

determined – [d i t e r m I n d ] - рішучий, рішуче настроєний

concerned about – стурбований чимось

dean - декан

somewhat – трохи, певною мірою

gold rush – золота лихоманка

Discussion:

1. What do you feel about emigrating? What is your attitude to emigrants?

2. What’s the best reason to emigrate?

3. What is the worst problem immigrants face in a new country?

4. Under what circumstances would you advise someone to emigrate?

5. What’s the best thing about life in the US?

6. What do you think immigrants miss about their native country?

7. What would you need in order to be happy in another country?

Roleplaying:
1. Explain why you are going to leave Ukraine to your children.
2. A husband is trying to convince his wife that they should emigrate to the US.
3. After they have emigrated to the US, a husband is trying to convince his wife that they have made a mistake and should go back to their native country.

MESSAGE TO THE STARS

Pre-reading task

1. Do you believe in extra-terrestrial life?

2. Some people claim that they have seen aliens and UFO’s. Do you believe them?

Our planet Earth is one of nine planets revolving around the Sun, a fairly small and ordinary star, which lies in the outer areas of the Milky Way galaxy. There are about 250 billion stars in our galaxy and billions of galaxies in the universe. People have always wondered about the possibility of intelligent life forms on other planets. In recent years this has become serious scientific speculation. Some scientists believe that there must be large numbers of stars with planets that could support living intelligent beings. Perhaps we will never know. The nearest star is 4.3 light-years away. A light-year is the distance covered by light traveling at about 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers a second) in one year. It would take the fastest Earth spacecraft about 40,000 years to reach the nearest star. For a number of years radio telescopes have been trying to pick up signals from outer space, so far without success. There are, however, millions of possible radio frequencies, and there is no reason why a completely alien civilization should not use a different type of communication, such as X-rays or even a type of wave we have not yet discovered. Suppose contact were made with beings 300 light-years away. By the time we had sent our reply and received their response, the earth would be 600 years older. It would be an interesting, but rather slow-moving, conversation!

The first man-made object to leave our solar system was the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. It was launched from Cape Kennedy cm March 2, 1972. It was designed to pass close to the planet Jupiter. In 1983 it left the outer limits of the planetary system. A gold plaque, 6 inches by 9 inches (15.2 cm x 22.9 cm), was placed on the spacecraft. On the plaque is a diagram showing the solar system and its location in the galaxy. There is also a drawing of a man and a woman, standing in front of a picture of the spacecraft. The mail's right hand is raised in a gesture of friendship. It is unlikely, however, that the plaque will ever be seen again. If it were found by an alien civilization, it seems improbable that they would be able to interpret it.

Every 175 years the large outer planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune - are in such a position that a spacecraft from Earth can fly past all of them. The two Voyager spacecrafts were launched in 1977 to photograph and investigate these planets. Voyager 7 reached Jupiter in February 1979, and Saturn in November 1980. It sent back dramatic pictures of the rings of Saturn and discovered previously unknown moons. It then left the solar system. Voyager 2 reached Jupiter in July 1979, Saturn in August 1981, Uranus in January 1986, and Neptune in August 1989, before leaving the solar system to travel silently through space. Its next stop-no one knows. As well as a pictorial plaque, Voyager 2 carries a gold-sprayed disc. The disc contains greetings in 60 languages, 140 photographs, and one and a half hours of music and songs, ranging in style from Beethoven and Mozart to the Beatles and Chuck Berry.

beings – гуманоїди, люди, створіння

plaque – [p l Q: k ] табличка

alien - інопланетянин

frequency – [ f r I: k w e n s I ] - частота

X-rays – рентгенівські промені

Discussion

1. If you had to put a number of articles into a spaceship capsule which could tell other civilisations about the life in the Earth what would you choose?

2. Do you think that the attempts to make contacts with extra-terrestrial civilizations are futile?

3. Why could the space exploration programs be useful while there are a lot of other important concerns on the Earth? Do you think that space exploration is worthwhile?

Дата добавления: 2015-10-02