Art and Art Galleries

1. Can you match these artists to the period they belong to?

1. Impressionism a. Pablo Picasso2. Cubism b. Leonardo da Vinci3. Art Nouveau c. Salvador Dali4. Surrealism d. Claude Monet5. The Renaissance e. Antonio Gaudi

2. Look at the following questions and then discuss with your answers with a partner.

1. Do you ever go to exhibitions? What kind?

2. Has your home town got an art gallery or a museum?

3. When was the last time you went to it?

4. What is the best exhibition you have ever been to?

5. Describe your favourite painting or sculpture.

6. What are the names of the major galleries or museums

in London, Paris, New York, St. Petersburg, Madrid?

7. Have you ever painted or sculpted or drawn?

8. Has any of your work ever been exhibited?

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3. At home, visit the following sites and have a trip around some of the great art galleries of the world:

London http://www.londontourist.org/art.html and have a look.

New York http://art-collecting.com/galleries_ny.htm

Paris http://www.paris.world-guides.com/art_galleries.html

Sydney http://www.art-search.com.au/nsw/sydney/art_galleries/

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3. Look at the following text and try to fill in the gaps with a suitable word.

Art Attack

A man almost (1) ____________________ a work of art, worth £25,000, in a London art gallery yesterday. The work of art consisted of a glass (2) __________________ with a dead sheep (3) ____________________ in formaldehyde.

The protester poured black ink into the case while it was on (4) ________________ at the Serpentine Gallery. Gallery staff were shocked as they saw the protester run away after first (5) _______________ the name of the work to ‘Black Sheep’.

The (6) ________________________ work was originally called ‘Away from the Flock’. It was the latest in a long (7) _____________________ of animals pickled by famous British artist Damien Hirst. Neither the police nor gallery staff (8) _______________ think of a motive for the attack, other than the fact that it might be a protest about its controversial nature.

Hirst spent last night emptying the case and cleaning the animal in the hope that it (9) ______________ be repaired. Hirst said recently of the sculpture, “I don’t think it’s shocking. It gets people interested in art. The worst thing is if someone just walks through a gallery without (10) ___________________ anything.” However, he went on to say, “People can’t come in and mess about with exhibits without the artist’s (11) __________________. But it could have been worse. Someone could have come in with a hammer.”In the end, the protester who (12) _______________ ink into Hirst’s work had to pay £1,000 to help restore it to its original condition.

4. These are the words that were taken out of the text. Complete the text choosing from the words in the box below.

((adapted from Innovations, LTP, 2001)

poured destroyed container mightseeing could changing suspendeddisplay consent line controversial

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Let the people in! Guardian, Saturday January 27, 2001

The government wants entry to national museums to be free, just like everyone else. So, asks David Barrie, what on earth is the problem?

This week, the BBC confidently announced that culture secretary Chris Smith had done a deal with the Treasury and that admission to all national museums would soon be free. The story was quickly denied by government spokesmen, but the headlines it provoked are a reminder of how central the promise of "free admission for all" is to the success of the government's cultural policy. After all, Tony Blair pledged to write the arts into the government's "core script".

In the 1980s, when museum charges were encouraged by the government of the day as part of a market-driven economy, museums and their collections were regarded as commodities. And the result? Those institutions that went down the charging route saw their visitor numbers plummet on average by a third - and these numbers have never fully recovered.

This approach failed to take account of the unique importance of museums: the treasures they display are the common threads that link us to each other, to our past, to other cultures. They are a crucial part of the fabric of the individual and of society, and everyone should have free access to them. They have been built up with public money or through generous private donations - they belong to us all.

This government has gone a long way to making these collections freely accessible to everyone. Dropping charges for children in April 1999 resulted in a 20% increase in child visitors. The next phase saw pensioners getting in free from April 2000 and resulted in a 40% increase in visits by senior citizens.

But the government's policy has stalled at the final stage due to absurd VAT regulations that mean national museums that currently charge will lose millions of

This is because they are treated as businesses, and can recover their VAT. As a result, the government has come up with a precarious compromise, asking these museums to drop their charges for adults to £1 from September, rather than scrap them altogether.

Yet charging is, in itself, a barrier - the amount is almost immaterial. One museum which recently introduced a charge of £1 saw its visitors fall by 50%.

The government has unwittingly provided an incentive to non-charging national museums to introduce entry fees in order that they too can reclaim their VAT - for the British Museum that amounts to £2-3m a year. VAT recovery is fast becoming the driving objective of our national museums and galleries.

So where do we go from here? The National Art Collections Fund has proposed a solution that would enable all national museums and galleries to go free without having to worry about their VAT bill. Through a simple amendment to the 1994 VAT Act, they could be added to the list of existing bodies (such as the BBC) that can reclaim VAT, even though they are not, strictly speaking, "businesses".

If a museum is free, people drop in casually. It can be for a few minutes or a few hours - they don't feel they have to spend a day there to get their money's worth: free admission is the gateway to an experience that can literally change lives.

David Barrie

* David Barrie is director of the National Arts Collection Fund.

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pounds if they go completely free.

Context : Museums are expensive to run, with the costs of acquisitions, conservation, maintenance, staff salaries and special exhibitions all weighing heavily upon their budgets. In many cases much of their funding comes from the government, whether at national or local level, with the remainder made up through endowments, income from museum shops and other commercial ventures, private donations and sponsorship, and, very often, through entry fees. About half of Britain’s museums charge for admission but this number should be reduced over the next few years as it is the policy of the Labour government to make entry to museums free.

PROS

  Museums preserve and display our artistic, social, scientific and political heritage. Everyone should have access to such important cultural resources as part of active citizenship, and because of the educational opportunities they offer to people of every age. If museums are not funded sufficiently by the government, they will be forced to charge for entry, and this will inevitably deter many potential visitors, especially the poor and those whose educational and cultural opportunities have already been limited. Visitors to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London declined by 15% after it started charging for admission. Free access is essential to provide freedom of cultural and educational opportunity.

Television is not an adequate substitute for widely accessible museums. At a museum a visitor can choose what to see and for how long they wish to study it; television is a much more passive medium making the viewer dependent upon the interests and interpretation of the producer - it is likely to present sensationalist and controversial material in a bid for ratings, for example. Nor can a two-dimensional medium compare to viewing an object, even a flat painting, from many different angles, or even handling it, in a museum.

  Museums are a crucial source of inspiration and education for our increasingly important creative industries (e.g. art, design, fashion, and architecture). Free access is an investment in the future of this sector of the economy and therefore has long-term benefits in securing prosperity for the whole of society. Similarly, tourism is an important sector of our economy and many visitors will be deterred from visiting our country if they think it will be very expensive to visit its great museums and galleries. Tourists do contribute hugely to government revenues through the indirect taxes they pay and the jobs they generate, so free museum access to support the tourism industry is a sensible investment.

Education is not just in schools, parents also have an important role in broadening their children’s cultural horizons through museum visits, among other forms of creative and intellectual stimulus. Children may have free entry at many museums, but parents are often charged high prices, deterring family visits, especially from the poor and from those families who do not prize education so highly. Again, this is an equal opportunity issue, being one of the reasons why middle-class children outperform their less-privileged peers academically.

Museums have a valuable role in preserving and transmitting a nation’s history and heritage to new generations. Free access will encourage more people to find out about their country and help to promote feelings of national unity and identity, while promoting

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greater understanding and acceptance of foreign cultures.

CONS

Not everyone wishes to visit museums, which are essentially a form of entertainment for the middle classes and tourists. The majority of adults never visit a museum, preferring instead leisure pursuits such as football, the cinema or clubbing. Why should they have to pay for their chosen entertainment while subsidising the generally wealthier middle class through their taxes? Tourists pay no taxes here and so gain a free ride at the expense of domestic taxpayers. The state provides educational opportunities for all through free schooling, which often includes free museum trips. If free museum entry were considered a cultural right, shouldn’t the state make theatre tickets free as well?

Today television plays a much greater role in transmitting our cultural heritage and a sense of national identity. Usually free to the viewer, it reaches into almost every home, both rich and poor. Most countries recognise television’s power by giving broadcasters a duty to include cultural and educational programming. It is a far more effective way of reaching a mass public than expensively subsidising every museum on the off-chance that people will enthusiastically flock to them. Often, inspirational television programmes will increase the popularity of relevant museum exhibits – for example, Britain’s Natural History museum saw greatly increased attendances after the BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs series.

Such potential economic benefits are dubious and rely upon access to collections that are excellent in their content and in the way in which they are conserved and displayed. If museums are to be funded entirely out of public money, the pressure on any government’s budget from the demands of hospitals, schools, pensions, etc. will inevitably mean that museums will come a poor second, resulting in under-funding and poorer museums at the end of the process. This will not help our creative industries or tourism. It is excellence rather than the cost of visiting attractions which attracts tourists in any case.

 Clearly this is a question of balance, as the government cannot afford to fund every activity of possible value, especially given the social and economic costs of increased taxation. It is reasonable for governments to focus their attention upon schools and higher education in an attempt to provide more equality of opportunity. In any case, there are alternatives to state funding in the private sector – today many companies or private patrons sponsor museum exhibitions, acquisitions and new building work. This philanthropy is linked to a desire to make a difference, so it is unlikely to be strong when the government is seen as the source of all funding – it is most advanced in the USA for example, where government funding is very limited compared to other developed countries.

If museums are entirely funded by the state, they will have little incentive to increase visitor numbers and to make their collections exciting and accessible for all. The need to attract paying customers concentrates the minds of museum and gallery directors upon the needs of the public and produces imaginative and popular exhibitions, as well as adding value through guided tours, lectures and tie-ins with television programmes. All of this ensures that more people, not less visit

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museums. In addition, if museums were made entirely reliant upon public funding, it is likely that money would be channelled to those institutions the government felt were most important, forcing smaller, local or more specialist museums to close. Nazi Germany also points to the dangers of allowing politicians control over interpretations of national identity and presentations of other cultures.

Modality

The term 'modality' subsumes a range of devices that indicate speakers’ attitudes to the propositions they utter, and to some degree to their addressees

Roger Fowler, 'Power', in Teun Van Dijk (ed.), Handbook of Discourse Analysis, volume 4 Discourse Analysis in Society (Academic Press, London, 1985), pp.61-82, p.72.

Modality relates to the way in which a speaker or writer uses language for their comments, attitudes or opinions and also to the relationship between a speaker or writer and the content of their text and between a speaker or writer and their readers or listeners.

Modality is particularly frequent and important in instructions, advice and essays, which are all types of text in which a writer wants to make the reader do something: to agree with, or at least share, their opinion or follow a particular course of behaviour. It is an important way of manipulating people with respect to making them think or do what you want!

The grammar of modality includes:Modal verbsModal adverbsModal adjectivesPronounsNaming

Modal verbs can may will shall must

could might would should ought have to

The function of modal verbs is to reflect our judgment about the truth or likelihood (probability) of what we say or report.

Modal verbs can also express deference, especially in terms of permission. Think of the forms such as "I would like to ask you if I might have a day off next week" from a subordinate to a boss, or "Could I borrow the car tonight, please?" from an 18-year-old son or daughter to their car-owning parent.

This sense is naturalized in the standard forms for polite imperatives: "Could you pass me that book?" "Would you give me a hand with this?" "Just be quiet for a moment, will you?" This use of modals is important in expressing (or establishing) the relationship between speakers.

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Modal adverbsThese are adverbs which express an opinion as though it were a universal truth:certainly, obviously, clearly, importantly, essentially, generally, usually, only, hardly, correctly, rightly, wrongly, just, fortunately, unfortunately, regrettably, tragically...

Other modal adverbs such as probably, possibly and perhaps admit the lack of certainty, yet nonetheless express the writer or speaker's point of view about a fact or statement.

Modal adjectivesThese work in just the same way as the adverbs, but obviously (!) with reference to nouns:best, worst, important, normal, right, wrong, correct, wise, foolish, mad, essential, obvious, clear, certain, probable, possible...

PronounsThe choice of personal and possessive pronouns made by a writer or speaker establishes an implied relationship between them and their reader or listener and forms a means of manipulation and persuasion.

If a writer uses direct address to the reader through the 'you' pronoun, then the reader feels as though the writer is speaking directly to them and is more likely to agree with or believe what the writer is saying, since a relationship of trust is implied. In the same way, the use of 'we' (in its inclusive sense) implies that the writer and reader belong to the same group and again a feeling of trust is created. Notice the use of 'our' in the museums pros and cons texts: artistic, social, scientific and political heritage (pros 1) creative industries (cons 2).

Impersonal formsImpersonal forms distance the reader, yet can suggest expert authority which may achieve consensus: 'it is well-known that...' , 'it is reasonable for governments to focus on ... (museums cons 6).

NamingThis form of modality relates to the way participants in a text are referred to and how this reveals the speaker or writer's attitude to them. This can be at the level of title and family name, or first name, or short form of first name in a dialogue or a written text (newspaper article, for example) or how people referred to in the text are described, for example, 'football supporters', 'hooligans', 'women', 'ladies', 'girls', 'chicks'.

For example, in the article Welcome Stranger, the writer uses the neutral word 'immigrants' to refer to people who (wish to) come to another country to live, especially when citing the definition for refugees, but cites the terms used by political groups when referring to these same people as (conservatives) 'spongers and scroungers' and (socialists) 'job-stealers'. these terms express certain (only) possible aspects of the group and a very negative attitude to them. The term 'a burden on tax-payers' is used to refer to the same group of people but in the words and view of people who are against their entry into Britain on economic grounds. It is interesting to note that the term 'minority groups' is increasingly used by the British government and the quality press to refer to these people when they are established in the new country and when there are possibilities of tension or conflict.

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ExerciseLook at the pros and cons text on free admission to museums and try to identify the different forms of modality it uses.

Example: 1st cons paragraph:"essentially" (modal adverb); "why should they have to pay", "shouldn't the state" (modal verbs); "everyone", "the middle classes and tourists", "the majority of adults", "domestic taxpayers" (naming).

Why is modality useful to this text?Can rhetorical questions be considered a form of modality?

Modal Verbs and Adverbs

Of all the modal adverbs that you will probably use in your writing the adverbs which express certainty and tentativeness will be amongst the most common. The table below contains verbs and adverbs that you can use to express the different degrees of certainty or modality of your opinions or argument. It also provides you with some examples of how to structure your sentence to use these words in your writing.

Certainty of Conclusion

Modal Verbs/Adverbs Statement of Claim

Strongis, will, cannot, must, undoubtedly, always, never, definitely, clearly

It is certain that...It seems clear that...X is definitely...

Moderate

should, would, can, ought to, tends to, majority of cases, usually, likely, probably, regularly, often, generally, frequently, rarely

It appears probable... It is usually the case that... In the majority of cases...The results suggest it is likely that...

Tentative

may, might, could, possibly, conceivably, sometimes, occasionally, seldom, perhaps, maybe, uncertainly,

Conceivably,... It is possible that...Occasionally,...It may be the case that...

Adapted from: Jordon, R. R. (1990) Academic Writing Course. Edinburgh: Nelson Study Skills in English and Learning Assistance Centre, University of Sydney (1992) Writing in an Academic Style.

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Here are some examples of modality use in academic writing.

It seems likely universities will receive substantial government funding because....................

Tentative modality - rather than 'it is the case', the author is less certain, 'it seems likely it is the case'.

Continuous assessment can be an effective alternative to final exams.

‘can be’ is a more moderate expression of opinion than saying 'is'.

A scholarship system based on family income bracket has the potential to mitigate class inequalities among students.

Modality lowered through the use of 'has the potential to' rather than merely 'it mitigates’.

Massive government investment in social programs is the most desirable option to face the deepening economic crisis.

The opinion expressed in this sentence is strong, however, it is more moderate than saying '…is the only appropriate option…’

However, it would be wrong to conclude that there is no systematic grammatical variation in English (David Crystal, Re-discover Grammar, 3rd edn. Harlow, Pearson, 2004, p.27)

'it would be wrong' is more moderate than 'it is wrong' and makes the writer's attitude more acceptable in English academic writing where direct assertions lead to suspicion on the part of the readers and resentment of the writer's arrogance.

.. we use an example of a letter to a newspaper to consider the ways in which language, society and power might be related. (Linda Thomas et al., Language, Society and Power, 2nd edn., London, Routledge, 2004, p.2)

the tentative 'might be' is more acceptable than the strong 'are'.

... her metaphors of female alienation are potentially powerful and far-reaching (Sarah Gamble, 'Shambleau and Others', in Lucie Armitt (ed.) Where No Man has Gone Before, London, Routledge, 2004), pp.29-49, p.48)

the modality is lowered through the use of 'potentially' and the statement becomes more tentative than it would have been with 'are' alone.

... it seems very unlikely that at any point the main lines of Austin's thought have been misrepresented (J.L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words, 2nd edn., Oxford, OUP, 1975, (viii)

although 'seems' is more tentative than 'is', 'very unlikely' leaves only a small amount of uncertainty in the writer's opinion.

at times this can result in a very obvious tension between the book as a saleable commodity and the creativity of the writing contained therein (Lucie Armitt, 'Introduction', in Armitt, op. cit., p.8)

-'can result in' is a more moderate way of saying 'is'.

Ultimately, in academic writing the way you express your opinion ought to correspond to the amount of evidence you provide and the examples you cite which you use to give weight to your opinions. On the one hand, it might be appropriate to make a strong modality claim because the evidence you give completely backs up your opinion. On the other hand, you may wish to be more tentative and leave the reader to decide for himself/herself which side of the argument he/she agrees with most. Generally speaking, it is a good idea to adjust the modality you use to present your argument according to the certainty of the examples you use to support it.

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Exercise

Look at the extract from a student’s essay below. Change the level of modality so that the student’s opinion is expressed in a more tentative way.

I feel very strongly that there are many extremely valid reasons why

people should always be allowed to smoke anywhere they like. First of all,

without a shadow of a doubt, it is an absolute negation of an individual‘s freedom

not to be able to behave as he or she wishes in any social context. It is obvious

that non-smokers must simply tolerate smokers’ behaviour and must not

continually complain.

Secondly, the opinion that passive smoking damages health has clearly

been invented in order to damage the incredibly important tobacco producing

industry. Surely everyone must admit that this is an overt case of political

propaganda.

In conclusion, the only suitable way to solve this problem is to ban the ban

on smoking in public places! It should never have been imposed on we smokers

in the first place.

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THE PARAGRAPHFormal written English is structured in paragraphs. Basically,

paragraphs are related blocks rather like smaller units of text, which when put together form a recognizable structure, i.e. a complete text. When information is presented in this way, the individual points in an argument are both easier to follow ad can be more convincing, since they help readers to better absorb the information being presented. Providing a reader with shorter ‘chunks’, rather than a continuous, unrelated stream of sentences facilitates the reading experience and aids the reader’s concentration. A good writer, therefore will ensure that the messages/he wants to convey is divided into meaningful paragraphs. One of the most important objectives of this course is for you to begin to write in well-organized and structurally convincing paragraphs; this objective is considered a first step in the process of successful academic writing. Although there is no rigid form of “the paragraph”, the following concepts are generally held to be defining:

each paragraph has one principal idea a paragraph has approximately 3-7 sentences.

One principal ideaA paragraph deals with one main idea, topic or theme. Even though in any piece of writing all the sentences used will be concerned with one overall idea (the events of a day in a diary, the subject of the magazine or newspaper article, the life of a person in an obituary, the novel being reviewed in a book review, the area of knowledge in a text book, etc.), dividing the whole into individual though interrelated parts is both a courtesy to the reader as well as a method of making the writer's points more effective. It is important to remember that each paragraph has its own internal structure. Structurally, a paragraph contains a topic sentence, which expresses the main idea of that paragraph. Each sentence which follows builds on the previous sentence so that the main message of the paragraph is gradually made clearer to the reader through illustration and example of the idea presented in the topic sentence. A structure enables points in an argument to be both easier to follow and more convincing. Providing the reader with shorter 'chunks', rather than a continuous stream of sentences covering the whole page, facilitates the reading experience and aids the reader's concentration.

LengthIn relatively short pieces of text such as those that will be dealt with in this course, the average size of a paragraph will probably be between three to seven sentences. Shorter paragraphs do not give enough space for an idea to be expressed, while longer paragraphs would be disproportionate to the length of the overall text. It is generally held that one sentence cannot constitute a paragraph, except (perhaps) as the Introductory paragraph. This is logical if you think that a paragraph expresses and develops an idea. A text made up of a series of one sentence paragraphs is a list! The sentences which make up your paragraph need to be linked effectively and such linking is achieved by the use of transition words, phrases or even whole sentences, which act as signposts to the reader. Such transition items link the present point in question to the preceding and/or following sentences. In very long texts, such as you final thesis, you will need to write whole transition paragraphs which link sections of a longer text.

Formatting your own workDividing your work up into paragraphs is part of layout convention whose aim is to allow lyour reader to understand where and when a paragraph begins and ends. The first method is called 'indentation', which is the small space between the left margin of the page and the first word of a paragraph and it is

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one of the two graphic signs used to indicate the division between paragraphs. For example:

This is what indentation of the first word looks like. Most computer key-boards have a key at the top left with arrows pointing left and right. This is the key which indents the following word automatically. When writing by hand, you have to leave this space yourself. The other graphic sign used to mark the division into paragraphs is going to a new line and leaving the rest of the line containing the last sentence of the previous paragraph blank (a capo), as above.

REFUGEESWELCOME, STRANGER

SEP 6TH 2001 THE ECONOMIST PRINT EDITION

RICH COUNTRIES SHOULD RECOGNISE THE BENEFITS OF IMMIGRANTS AND KEEP THE COSTS IN PERSPECTIVE

IMMIGRATION, it seems, hardens hearts and softens brains like few other issues. Take a boatload of Afghans bobbing in the coastal waters of Australia and, on the other side of the world, an apparently endless queue of refugees trying to make their way through the Channel Tunnel into Britain, and watch compassion and clear-mindedness fly out the window. Liberals abandon their tolerance, and their professed dislike of government restrictions. Socialists speak of job-stealers. Conservatives mutter about spongers and scroungers, forgetting that immigrants generally bring with them the qualities of thrift, hard work and enterprise. Neither love nor logic supports hostility to immigration. No respectable religion or political credo says it is a sin to seek a better life, still less to escape persecution. Those who object to immigrants are, if they are honest, nearly always just responding to one of mankind's baser instincts—a deep-rooted suspicion of outsiders.

Accept this not as a point in a sermon, but as a basis for policy. In a better world, all countries, rich and poor, would allow migrants to come and go as they pleased. They might not be eligible for all the entitlements available to citizens, but they would be recognised for what most of them are: decent people seeking to better their lives, and usually at the same time doing jobs that locals either cannot or will not do, and thus contributing to the common good. But the world, or rather its inhabitants, are imperfect, and completely unrestricted immigration would certainly lead to huge practical difficulties and probably intolerable racial or communal strains. So governments have to try to control the number of immigrants they admit. But a recognition of why they are doing this—their readiness to yield to the strength of human prejudice—should make them strive, first, to be compassionate and, second, to be fair.

In the case of the Afghans on the Tampa, compassion should have led to their early disembarkation on Australian soil. The government's decision to send them on to Papua New Guinea, and thence to more welcoming countries (including Nauru, a benighted outcrop of ancient guano in the middle of the Pacific), does little for Australia's reputation for hospitality. Fairness too would at least give them the chance to

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state their case to be genuine refugees, which, since they come from a country ruled by the Taliban, is prima facie strong. But fairness would also allow Australia to send them back if they were found to be in no danger at home. If a country has a policy of accepting some immigrants—Australia takes 70,000-100,000 a year, and 10,000 refugees—it would be right to give preference to those who had made an orderly application and patiently waited for admission, rather than arriving unannounced by makeshift raft or listing coaster.

Problems, but manageable ones

Compassion also suggests that France is right to provide shelter for refugees trying to get into Britain, even though fairness suggests they should be admitted (perhaps by France itself, or other European Union countries) or sent home according to principles other than mere luck and determination. Their ability to fill vacant jobs would be one. And Britain should acknowledge that immigrants will always try to enter illegally if they have virtually no hope of entering legally.

In practice, it is often impossible to distinguish between immigrants seeking a better life and those with a well-founded fear of persecution—the acid test for automatic admission as a refugee set by a UN convention in 1951. Few immigrants unambiguously fit the description. The difficulty of proving or disproving claims, plus appeals against rejections, means applications are processed slowly, so most refugees in rich countries manage to stay, legally or not. The business of housing refugees and dealing with their applications undoubtedly places a burden on taxpayers, but the problem should be kept in proportion. If, as one study suggested this week, Britain in fact takes four times as many immigrants as it legally accepts, no great harm seems to be done: Britain's racial troubles derive more from a failure to integrate the legal immigrants admitted decades ago than from any current wave of illegals.

In fact, rich countries probably gain far more than they lose from immigration. It is poor countries, which are seldom short of unskilled labour, that may genuinely bear a burden from playing host to the world's many victims of war, hunger and intolerance. The country with the most refugees is Pakistan, with over 2m; then comes Iran (1.9m), Germany (0.9m) and Tanzania (0.7m). Rich countries should recognise their relative good fortune, set generous quotas for needed immigrants and then set about the admittedly difficult task of rejecting others with much better grace than they now seem to muster.

1. With a partner discuss your reaction to this text and its relevance to the immigration situation in Italy today.

2. Further Reading:

For a brief history of immigration to Britain visit http://www.sovereignty.org.uk/features/articles/immig.html

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For a history of Ellis Island visit: http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Eihist.html

For a history of immigration from Italy to Australia visit http://museumvictoria.com.au/origins/history.aspx?pid=32

For information about how to emigrate to The USA visit :http://www.us-immigration.com/

For articles from the newspaper The Guardian regarding Immigration in Britain today visit the web page: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/immigration

ORGANISING AND WRITING AN ESSAY

There are six main steps. 1. Read the Title: Decide what is being asked for - opinion, compare/contrast, problem and solution, cause and effect, or a mixture. The type of question will decide the organisation and your ideas.2. Underline: Underline key vocabulary in the question and write words with the same or related meaning. Use your dictionary to help you - this will really save you a lot of time later on. It will also help to avoid repetition of words, and will show that you understand the question.3. Get Ideas: Decide if you are for or against the idea. Usually it is best to give both sides (for and against) and then to give your opinion in the conclusion. (However, there are other ways of organising your essay.)4. Decide Organisation: You should decide how your essay is going to be organised. Your plan should include at least four paragraphs: introduction, one side, the other side and the conclusion. 5. Write: After you have written your plan, write your essay. 6. Edit: Proofread your work to examine the way you have written, the style, the structure, the cohesion, and, of course, check for errors.

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

Read and underline key words. Look at the sample title below.

Governments should spend Money on Problems here first rather than on Space Exploration

Write down other words with the same meaning:

governments =  nations, countries, authorities, 14

politicians spend = allocate, give, allot, provide, budget, make available, waste, awardmoney =  budgets, taxes, resourcesproblems =  concerns, issues, worries, disasters, threats, threatening, war, famine, poverty, education, homelessness, drugs, global warminghere = on earth, in our own countries, closer to home, in developing countries, foreign aidspace exploration = space program, trips to the moon, the international space station, planets, planetary voyages

Topics for Discussion

Working in groups, take turns to talk for about two minutes WITHOUT INTERRUPTION on ONE of the topics below. Then the others should react to your talk by answering these questions:

Is there anything you’d like to add? Is there anything you don’t agree with?

Should individuals be free to decide whether or not to do the following things – or should there be laws to control them?

(i) drink alcohol at any age (v) own a gun(ii) be vaccinated (vi) take drugs(iii) make choices according to gender or race (vii) do civil service

(iv) recycle garbage (viii) immigrate into your country

Look at how these topics could become essay titles.

(i) There should be laws prohibiting the consumption of alcohol before the age of 18.

(ii) Vaccinating one’s children should be compulsory.

(iii) Regardless of gender and race, all people should have equal opportunity.

(iv) Proper recycling of waste is absolutely necessary in today’s society.

(v) Gun ownership requires strict legislation.

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(vi) Taking drugs is a personal issue.

(vii) Civil service should be obligatory for all Italian youth.

(viii) All restrictions on immigration should be abolished.

WRITING THE INTRODUCTION

Use your new words in the opening sentences. Describe the two sides of the present situation.

With many global concerns such as war, poverty, hunger and pollution, many people do not think that nations should waste money on exploring space. (One side) However, others are convinced that expenditure on space programs is justified. (Other side) 

Add a Statement of Purpose. A statement of purpose is a sentence (or two) that states what you are going to do in your essay. It is a kind of signpost or map that shows the reader what direction you will take. It comes at the end of the introduction. It is a good idea to write in the third person. Here are three examples.

1. […] This essay looks at ideas in favour of and against early marriage.

2. […] This essay will discuss the benefits of having universal free health care.

3. […] This essay will examine some arguments for and against space exploration.

Here are two more examples of introductions. Identify the two sides of the situation and the statement of purpose in each one.

Families should be Responsible for the Care of their Elderly Members

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In my country, most old people live happily with their children. Increasingly however, many families cannot take care of their parents. This essay will describe some of the problems involved with taking care of old people, and discuss who should be responsible.

Aid to Poor Countries has proved to be IneffectiveFor the last fifty years, poor countries have been receiving huge sums of money from rich donor countries. Some of this money has improved lives, while much of it has disappeared or made no difference. In this essay, some arguments for and against foreign aid will be discussed.

Show how many parts your essay will have, so that the reader has an idea of what to expect.

The effects of drugs on the individual, the family, and society will be examined.

In an essay with the statement of purpose above, there will clearly be three parts - one on the effects of drugs on the individual, one part with the effects on the family, and another with the effects on society. Be strong: Sometimes you don't need a "will" or "going to". Your statement of purpose is so strong that it is clear what your opinion is.

Physically punishing children brutalizes parents, damages the parent-child relationship, and is completely unnecessary.

In an essay with this statement of purpose, there will clearly be three parts - one on the effects of physical punishment on parents, one part with the effects on parent-child relationships, and another which claims that physical punishment is not needed.

The following are words that you can use in your statement of purpose. Remember that the word you choose must reflect the intention of the title.

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analyze look at examine discussdescribe compare present outlineexplain investigate contrast consider

 If you are having problems thinking about an introduction, leave some space and write it later - AFTER you have written the body or conclusion.

Factive and non-factive verbs

When writng an academic text, especially when reporting the ideas of others, it is vital that you select the correct verb to describe e what you have understood about the message in the original text. One consideration you should make when selecting verbs is to be aware of the underlying factivity of the verb you want to use. Verbs can be divided into two categories, factive and non-factive. When you use a factive verb, you are committed to the truth of the proposition expressed in the that-clause which follows.

The data reveal that people lining in the UK have poor foreign language skills.

With non-factive verbs the speakier/writer is not committed to the truth of the proposition expressed in the that-clause. Non.factive predicates indicate that the speaker/writer does not grant factual stuatus to the proposition in the that-clause, not that s/he considers the proposition to be false.

The study suggests that multilingualism is more common in landlocked countries.

Below are some verbs that you can use in your writing.

Factive verbs

accept establish note revealacknowledge explain observe seeconfirm know prove showdemonstrate learn recognise understand

Non-factive verbs

argue doubt hypothesise recommendassume estimate imply suggest

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believe expect predictsuspect

claim foresee presume think

ORGANISATION

Read the essay below. Note the way the text is divided into paragraphs, helping the reader to identify the various components of the essay.

Parents should be Responsible if their Children behave Badly

Many crimes and social problems are caused by children. Despite the damage these teenage criminals cause, parents are not held responsible in most countries. This essay will discuss whether parents should be forced to pay for their children’s crimes. There are many reasons why parents should not be responsible for crimes committed by teenage children. First of all, teenagers today are independent. They often move out of the parents’ house at 18 years of age or younger. They are expected to learn to take care of themselves and make their own decisions, and not stay like small children attached to their parents. Secondly, parents work. They cannot watch their adolescent children all the time. A third point is that even children from good families can sometimes commit crimes.

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Parents should not be responsible if they have worked hard to raise their children properly. However, because of the many problems young troublemakers cause, some people feel that we should make parents responsible. Firstly, most juvenile crimes are committed by adolescents whose parents do not care or make any effort to control their children. If children had to pay fines, they might make more effort. Another point is that even though the children may seem mature, they are not really able to make good decisions. Parents should be responsible for raising and teaching their children until they are fully grown. Furthermore, if children know that their parents will have to pay, they will think carefully before getting into trouble. In conclusion, there are good reasons both for and against making parents pay for acts committed by their children. However, I feel strongly that if we want to reduce the number of such crimes, we need to make parents take more responsibility.

The section below examines the essay you have just read. It is broken down into its component parts to help you understand how to put information together. The first column identifies the role of each sentence. The essay supports the title -  it wants parents to be responsible if their children commit crimes.

Title: Parents should be Responsible if their Children behave Badly

Paragraph 1: Introduction

Present situation

Many crimes and social problems are caused by children. Despite the damage these teenage criminals cause, parents are not held responsible in most countries.

Statement of purpose

This essay will discuss whether parents should be forced to pay for their children’s crimes.

Paragraph 2: Against

Topic sentence

There are many reasons why parents should not be responsible for crimes committed by teenage children.

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Reason 1:Independence

First of all, teenagers today are independent. They often move out of the parents’ house at 18 years of age or younger. They are expected to learn to take care of themselves and make their own decisions, and not stay like small children attached to their parents.

Reason 2:parents work

Secondly, parents work. They cannot watch their adolescent children all the time.

Paragraph 3: For

Topic sentence

However, because of the many problems young  troublemakers cause, some people feel that we should make parents responsible.

Reason 1: lack of parental control

Firstly, most juvenile crimes are committed by adolescents whose parents do not care or make any effort to control their children. If parents had to pay fines, they might make more effort. 

Reason 2: children notmature

Another point is that even though the children may seem mature, they are not really able to make good decisions. Parents should be responsible for raising and teaching their children until they are fully grown. 

Paragraph 4: Conclusion

Summary In conclusion, there are good reasons both for and against making parents pay for acts committed by their children.

Future/personalopinion

However, I feel strongly that if we want to reduce the number of such crimes, we need to make parents take more responsibility.

CONCLUSIONS

The conclusion is the end of the essay. It is the last part of the essay and it is the part that the reader may remember most. It should be clear and avoid confusing the reader. The reader expects the conclusion to do some or all of the following:

rephrase the question summarize the main ideas give your opinion and/or look to the future and suggest a

solution, if relevant21

The reader DOES NOT expect new information in the conclusion. Never add a new idea just because you have thought of it at the end! Vocabulary is important. The conclusion is very similar to the introduction. However, you should avoid repeating the same words. This is why a few minutes spent at the start writing down synonyms and related words is very helpful. 

Another way to look at the introduction and the conclusion is to think about gift wrapping paper.  Your introduction and conclusion wrap around your essay like a piece of bright paper "wraps" a present. They are not the main part of the essay, but they do make your essay look good.

Read the two essay titles below and their conclusions.

1. Product Testing on Animals should be ProhibitedI agree that we need to make sure that animals

who are used for testing new products have the minimum of suffering. However, I am convinced that animal testing is necessary, and that it will continue to benefit humans in new and wonderful ways.

2. Physical Punishment is an Inappropriate Way to control Children’s Behaviour

In conclusion, physical punishment can be a useful method of discipline. However it should be the last choice for parents. If we want to build a world with less violence we must begin at home, and we must teach our children to be responsible.

Transitional Words & Sentences

Uzma HussainRutgers UniversityAdapted from Study Guide, St. Thomas University

Using transitional words and phrases help papers read more smoothly by providing coherence.

A coherent paper allows the reader to flow from the first supporting point to the last.

Transitions indicate relations, whether from sentence to sentence, or from paragraph to paragraph. This is a list of "relationships" which supporting ideas may have, followed by a list of "transitional" words and phrases which can connect those ideas.

 

Addition also, besides, furthermore, in addition, moreover, again

Consequence accordingly, as a result, consequently, hence,

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otherwise, so then, therefore, thus, thereuponSummarizing after all, all in all, all things considered, briefly, by and

large, in any case, in any event, in brief, in conclusion, on the whole, in short, in summary, in the final analysis, in the long run, on balance, on the whole, to sum up, to summarize, finally

Generalizing as a rule, as usual, for the most part, generally, generally speaking, ordinarily, usually

Restatement in essence, in other words, namely, that is, that is to say, in short, in brief, to put it differently

Contrast/ Comparison

by the same token, conversely, instead, likewise, on one hand, on the contrary, on the other hand, rather, similarly, yet, but, however, still, nevertheless, in contrast

Sequence at first, first of all, to begin with, in the first place, at the same time, for now, for the time being, the next step, in time, in turn, later on, meanwhile, next, then, soon, the meantime, later, while, earlier, simultaneously, afterward, in conclusion

Illustration for example, for instance, for one thingSimilarity likewise, similar, moreoverDirection here, there, over there, beyond, nearly, opposite,

under, above, to the left, to the right, in the distance

Is the American dream really dead?

Inequality Carol Graham The Guardian 20 Jun 2017 (Last modified on 22 Jun 2018)

https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/jun/20/is-the-american-dream-really-dead

Research shows that poor people in the US are 20 times less likely to believe hard work will get them ahead than their (poorer) Latin American counterparts – with white Americans particularly pessimistic. What’s driving their despair?

The United States has a long-held reputation for exceptional tolerance of income inequality, explained by its high levels of social mobility. This combination underpins the American dream – initially conceived of by Thomas Jefferson as each citizen’s right to the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

This dream is not about guaranteed outcomes, of course, but the pursuit of opportunities. The dream found a persona in the fictional characters of the 19th-century writer Horatio Alger Jr – in which young working-class protagonists go from from rags to riches (or at least become middle class) in part due to entrepreneurial spirit and hard work.

Yet the opportunity to live the American dream is much less widely shared today than it was several decades ago. While 90% of the children born in 1940 ended up in higher ranks of the income distribution than their parents, only 40% of those born in 1980 have done so.

Attitudes about inequality have also changed. In 2001, a study found the only Americans who reported lower levels of happiness amid greater inequality were left-leaning rich people – with the poor seeing inequality as a sign of future opportunity. Such optimism has since been substantially tempered: in 2016, only 38% of Americans thought their children would be better off than they are.

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In the meantime, the public discussion about inequality has completely by-passed a critical element of the American dream: luck.

Just as in many of Alger’s stories the main character benefits from the assistance of a generous philanthropist, there are countless real examples of success in the US where different forms of luck have played a major role. And yet, social support for the unlucky – in particular, the poor who cannot stay in full-time employment – has been falling substantially in recent years, and is facing even more threats today.

In short, from new research based on some novel metrics of wellbeing, I find strong evidence that the American dream is in tatters, at least.

White despair, minority hope

My research began by comparing mobility attitudes in the US with those in Latin America, a region long known for high levels of poverty and inequality (although with progress in the past decades). I explored a question in the Gallup world poll, which asks respondents a classic American dream question: “Can an individual who works hard in this country get ahead?”

I found very large gaps between the responses of ‘the rich’ and ‘the poor’ in the US (represented by the top and bottom 20% income distributions of the Gallup respondents). This was in stark contrast to Latin America, where there was no significant difference in attitudes across income groups. Poor people in the US were 20 times less likely to believe hard work would get them ahead than were the poor in Latin America, even though the latter are significantly worse off in material terms.

Another question in the poll explores whether or not respondents experience stress on a daily basis. Stress is a marker of poor health, and the kind of stress typically experienced by the poor – usually due to negative shocks that are beyond their control (“bad stress”) – is significantly worse for wellbeing than “good stress”: that which is associated with goal achievement, for those who feel able to focus on their future.

In general, Latin Americans experience significantly less stress – and also smile more – on a daily basis than Americans. The gaps between the poor and rich in the US were significantly wider (by 1.5 times on a 0–1 score) than those in Latin America, with the poor in the US experiencing more stress than either the rich or poor in Latin America.

The gaps between the expectations and sentiments of rich and poor in the US are also greater than in many other countries in east Asia and Europe (the other regions studied). It seems that being poor in a very wealthy and unequal country – which prides itself on being a meritocracy, and eschews social support for those who fall behind – results in especially high levels of stress and desperation.

But my research also yielded some surprises. With the low levels of belief in the value of hard work and high levels of stress among poor respondents in the US as a starting point, I compared optimism about the future across poor respondents of different races. This was based on a question in the US Gallup daily poll that asks respondents where they think they will be five years from now on a 0-10 step life satisfaction ladder.

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I found that poor minorities – and particularly black people – were much more optimistic about the future than poor white people. Indeed, poor black respondents were three times as likely to be a point higher up on the optimism ladder than were poor whites, while poor Hispanic people were one and a half times more optimistic than whites. Poor black people were also half as likely as poor whites to experience stress the previous day, while poor Hispanics were only two-thirds as likely as poor whites.

What explains the higher levels of optimism among minorities, who have traditionally faced discrimination and associated challenges? There is no simple answer.

One factor is that poor minorities have stronger informal safety nets and social support, such as families and churches, than do their white counterparts. Psychologists also find that minorities are more resilient and much less likely to report depression or commit suicide than are whites in the face of negative shocks, perhaps due to a longer trajectory of dealing with negative shocks and challenges.

Another critical issue is the threat and reality of downward mobility for blue-collar whites, particularly in the heartland of the country where manufacturing, mining, and other jobs have hollowed out. Andrew Cherlin of Johns Hopkins University finds that poor black and Hispanic people are much more likely than poor white people to report that they live better than their parents did. Poor whites are more likely to say they live worse than their parents did; they, in particular, seem to be living the erosion of the American dream.

The American problem

Why does this matter? My research from a decade ago – since confirmed by other studies – found that individuals who were optimistic about their futures tended to have better health and employment outcomes. Those who believe in their futures tend to invest in those futures, while those who are consumed with stress, daily struggles and a lack of hope, not only have less means to make such investments, but also have much less confidence that they will pay off.

The starkest marker of lack of hope in the US is a significant increase in premature mortality in the past decade – driven by an increase in suicides and drug and alcohol poisoning and a stalling of progress against heart disease and lung cancer – primarily but not only among middle-aged uneducated white people. Mortality rates for black and Hispanic people, while higher on average than those for whites, continued to fall during the same time period.

The reasons for this trend are multi-faceted. One is the coincidence of an all-too-readily-available supply of drugs such as opioids, heroin and fentanyl, with the shrinking of blue-collar jobs – and identities - primarily due to technological change. Fifteen per cent of prime age males are out of the labour force today; with that figure projected to increase to 25% by 2050. The identity of the blue-collar worker seems to be stronger for white people than for minorities, meanwhile. While there are now increased employment opportunities in services such as health, white males are far less likely to take them up than are their minority counterparts.

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Lack of hope also contributes to rising mortality rates, as evidenced in my latest research with Sergio Pinto. On average, individuals with lower optimism for the future are more likely to live in metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with higher mortality rates for 45- to 54-year-olds.

Desperate people are more likely to die prematurely, but living with a lot of premature death can also erode hope. Higher average levels of optimism in metropolitan areas are also associated with lower premature mortality rates. These same places tend to be more racially diverse, healthier (as gauged by fewer respondents who smoke and more who exercise), and more likely to be urban and economically vibrant.

Technology-driven growth is not unique to the US, and low-skilled workers face challenges in many OECD countries. Yet by contrast, away from the US, they have not had a similar increase in premature mortality. One reason may be stronger social welfare systems – and stronger norms of collective social responsibility for those who fall behind – in Europe.

Ironically, part of the problem may actually be the American dream. Blue-collar white people – whose parents lived the American dream and who expected their children to do so as well – are the ones who seem most devastated by its erosion and yet, on average, tend to vote against government programmes. In contrast, minorities, who have been struggling for years and have more experience multi-tasking on the employment front and relying on family and community support when needed – are more resilient and hopeful, precisely because they still see a chance for moving up the ladder

There are high costs to being poor in America, where winners win big but losers fall hard. Indeed, the dream, with its focus on individual initiative in a meritocracy, has resulted in far less public support than there is in other countries for safety nets, vocational training, and community support for those with disadvantage or bad luck. Such strategies are woefully necessary now, particularly in the heartland where some of Alger’s characters might have come from, but their kind have long since run out of luck.

Why Americans won’t give up their guns

Gary Younge The Guardian 6 Oct 2017 ( Last modified on 5 Jun 2019 )

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/06/americans-guns-nra-las-vegas-shooting

The United States needs new gun laws. But first it needs to shed the myths that sustain its reliance on weapons

‘After Sandy Hook gun advocates were far more likely to have contacted a public official about guns than those who support gun control.’ Photograph: Washington Post/Getty Images

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Around 3.30am on 23 November 2013 a stray bullet shattered the window of an apartment in Indianapolis where a couple watched television while their two-month-old baby slept. The man called 911, with panic in his voice. “I need to get out of here,” he told the dispatcher. “Can you get a car so I can get out of here?”

“I think there’s several officers already over there,” the dispatcher replied, calmly. The 911 recordings reveal the man breathing heavily as he talks to his partner. “Put the stuff in the baby bag. Find it tomorrow. We’ll carry it to a hotel.” He urges the dispatcher to hurry up and rescue them until she loses her patience. “They’ll be there as soon as they can, all right?” she says. “As. Soon. As. They. Can. OK? Just stay inside your apartment. Do not go out. We’ll get an officer to you.”

Four months later, in the same city, the country’s main gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, held its annual convention with the slogan “Stand and Fight”. In a speech in equal measure demagogic and apocalyptic, the CEO, Wayne LaPierre, evoked a nation in peril and demise. “There are terrorists and home invaders and drug cartels and carjackers and knockout gamers and rapers, haters, campus killers, airport killers … I ask you: do you trust the government to protect you? We are on our own … The things we care about most are changing … It’s why more and more Americans are buying firearms and ammunition.”

Sunday’s horrific incident in Las Vegas was the 273rd mass shooting in America this year. There’s been another since then, in Miami, where four people were shot while attending a vigil to mourn a 30-year-old woman who was shot dead in her car last week.

The enduring question of why America continues to maintain such lax gun laws when such atrocities are so commonplace can in no small part be answered by this frightened man’s call and LaPierre’s dystopian response. The man’s fear and LaPierre’s fearmongering are intimately connected. That connection goes beyond the weapon itself, and the piecemeal laws that might control it, to some of the country’s most cherished myths and pervasive pathologies. When the national narrative is a story of conquering, dominating, force and power, an atavistic attachment to the gun can have more pull than a rational case against it.

In a society that fetishises self-reliance, the gun speaks to rugged individualism – each person should be responsible for saving themselves. In a political culture that favours small government, the gun stands as a counterpoint to a lumbering and inefficient state – defend yourself, because by the time the police get there you’ll be dead. It underpins a certain sense of masculinity and homestead – a real man should be able to protect his family and home. The dispatcher told him to sit and wait; the NRA told him to stand and fight.

But the myths are also powerful. What the gun lobby lacks in breadth of support it makes up for in depth of commitment

These claims for the gun are of course nonsense. Most people who are killed by guns kill themselves. People who have a gun in the house are far more likely to be shot dead than those who don’t. If more guns really made you safer, America would be one of the safest places in the world. As it is seven children or teenagers are shot dead on average every day. Once a week a toddler injures someone with a gun.

It would be easy to blame all of this on the NRA. The gun lobby has been central to stonewalling even the most basic commonsense reforms. Its capacity to lobby and fund politicians, locally and nationally, is unparalleled. It is because of the NRA that people on the no-fly list can still buy guns and there is no government funding for research into how to prevent gun deaths.

Yet while the NRA should not be underestimated, its role should not be exaggerated either. Even as it wins (or blocks) votes in Congress a consistent majority of Americans polled this year believe gun laws should be more strict, that it’s too easy to buy a gun and that if more people carried guns America

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would be less safe. When it comes to supporting background checks for all gun buyers there is near-unanimity (94%). The NRA has far more power in the polity than influence outside it.

But it has been able to tap into many of the core themes of the broader American narrative in a way that gun-control advocates have not. There is nothing inevitable about this. When a gunman shot children in Dunblane in 1996 Britain tightened its gun laws; when a shooter ran amok in Port Arthur that same year Australia did the same. That’s what mature and responsive democracies do. But in America, appeals to freedom, masculinity, small government and individualism, even when they are flawed, have more purchase than arguments for background checks and weapons bans, even when those arguments are right.

The problem goes all the way to the top. With the largest military in the world by far, raw power was a central tenet of American foreign policy before Trump promised to unleash “fire and fury” on Kim Jong-un. When accused of abdicating America’s role on the world stage, Barack Obama (who had a “kill list”) responded like a mafia don. “Well, Muammar Gaddafi probably does not agree with that assessment,” he said. “Or at least if he was around, he wouldn’t agree with that assessment.”

At home the gun is invoked as a cornerstone of America’s founding story and a safeguard against tyranny. “It’s about independence and freedom,” David Britt, a gun owner, explained to me at the NRA convention in 2012. “When you have a democratic system and an honourable people then you trust your citizens … In Europe they cede their rights and freedoms to their governments. But we think government should be subservient to us.”

These myths are, of course, partial. In a nation that became possible through genocide and slavery, among other things, the gun was central to a particular notion of racial power. If gun enthusiasts were seriously concerned about state tyranny they would have been marching alongside Black Lives Matter demonstrators protesting police shootings and calling for the mass armament of poor, black neighbourhoods. That’s not the kind of tyranny they object to.

But the myths are also powerful. What the gun lobby lacks in breadth of support it makes up for in depth of commitment. In 2013 – after the Sandy Hook shootings – gun advocates were far more likely to have contributed money to a pro-gun group or contacted a public official about guns than those who support gun control. Gun-control advocates, for the most part, want to change laws. Gun-rights advocates, by and large, believe they are preserving “essential truths” that make the country what it is. They have proved themselves more motivated because long after those distressing scenes from Vegas are a distant memory, these myths will remain vivid.Americans need new gun laws. But in order to get them they will have to start telling themselves a new story about the country it is, has been and wants to be. Their lives depend on it.

Look at how this example of the text has been modified to make it more tentative. Compare it to your version. In this version similar to yours? Is there anything you would do differently?

I believe that there may be valid reasons why people should be allowed to

smoke in public places. First of all, it could be considered in some way to be a

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negation of an individual’s freedom not to be able to behave as one wishes in

certain social contexts. As a matter of fact, it may simply be the case that non-

smokers and smokers be more tolerant of each other. Secondly, the claim that

passive smoking damages one’s health was probably exaggerated in order to not

only damage the tobacco producing industry, but also to frighten people so that

they stop smoking. In other words, it could be described as a case of political

propaganda. In conclusion, one possible way to solve this problem might be to

eliminate the restrictions on smoking in public places. There are already too many

reasons for strains in everyday society. The authorities do not need to enforce

another law that creates more conflict amongst the people. Members of a civil

society should practice enough decency and mutual respect for each other so that

they naturally behave in an appropriately respectful way.

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Smoking

prevalence

tobacco use

try/start/quit smoking cigarettes

smoker /non smoker

smoking habits/behavior

to be addicted/addiction

second hand smoke

Alcohol

alcoholic drinks/beverages

teetotaler- abstain from drinking

binge drinking

to get drunk

underage drinking

alcoholism/alcoholic

Obesity

overweight

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Young People

youth

adolescents

in adolescence/childhood

teenagers

teens

younger/older teens

youngsters

children

Screens

computer, smartphone, tv, tablet

screen media exposure

screentime

internet consumption

Guns

weapons

arms

to shoot

mass shooting

Smoking

prevalence

tobacco use

try/start/quit smoking cigarettes

smoker /non smoker

smoking habits/behavior

to be addicted/addiction

second hand smoke

Alcohol

alcoholic drinks/beverages

teetotaler- abstain from drinking

binge drinking

to get drunk

underage drinking

alcoholism/alcoholic

Obesity

overweight vs obese

fat/lean

weight gain/loss

eating habits

obesity related behaviors

cause-effect relationship

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