310 - HW

Part 5

You are going to read an article from a travel magazine. For questions 45-50, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.


In the eighties, the CBC introduced into their children's lineup of programmes a show entitled "Fraggle Rock." From among the multitude of muppet-like characters that made up this show, "The Intrepid Traveller' always seemed the most endearing to my mind. One's impression of this brave world-wanderer was shaped by details begotten through means of letters that the globe¬trotting character sent to his beloved nephew back in the village of Fraggle Rock. These impatiently-waited-for missives, told exciting tales of faraway places and mysterious cultures. As a grown-up, I've often pondered the question of how much the format of the show would have had to be altered if his memorable creature had been named the intrepid tourist instead of the aforementioned intrepid traveller.
In my opinion, the name intrepid tourist is actually oxymoronic. It seems difficult, when envisioning a tourist sprawled on a sunlounger, to imagine them having to face anything more dangerous than the sun's rays. To further elucidate, one need only consider a visitor to the typical, ephemerally popular tourist spots of the world. The only 'unknown' these people might risk encountering would be a new type of cocktail sipped beside a palm-tree-encircled pool. Herein lies the essence of what separates the traveller from the tourist. A traveller goes abroad and deliberately searches out new experiences and cultures. A tourist, on the other hand, leaves home in hopes of not having to deal with anything more foreign than place names in a tour guide or headlines in a local newspaper.
At this point, allow me to set the record straight by saying that I am not speaking disparagingly about those people who choose to vacation in your 'Club Med' type of resort. All I humbly ask is that they openly and honestly admit to themselves and others that they are tourists. What I find truly irksome are those people who frequent these 'get-away from it all' type of holiday spots and blithely claim that they are travellers. Only recently, a neighbour armed with his polaroids and still wearing his very loud luau shirt, straight-facedly informed me that he had just returned from Hawaii, where he had had the opportunity to mix and mingle with a totally alien culture. At first sight, his flowery apparel had succeeded in getting my dander up. However, I had bitten my
tongue and bore his facetious soliloquy in resigned, silent inattentiveness. Inside, though, I was boiling. I couldn't help wondering about the question: where in Hawaii or Tenerife, or the Bahamas, or any of the other numerous countries known for their tourist trade, would one have the opportunity to encounter a new culture?
Such tourist destinations have been set up to screen tourists from both the indigenous peoples and cultures of these locales. Why else would resorts be surrounded by electrified fences but to keep the locals at bay? Of course, these holidaymakers enjoy the false sense of adventure provided by boarding a plane and flying to an unknown destination. In addition, they positively bask in the prestige it brings them from the envious Joneses next door, but they still want to have access to all the comforts and safety of home while they are away.
The tourist industry makes millions every year. A huge percentage of these companies' profits goes into market research on what holidaymakers want out of their well-deserved two week hiatuses. Out of the way, off the beaten track areas of the world are marketably taboo. Suggestions for visiting such destinations, made by well-meaning, soon-to-be-fired travel agents, are met with borderline shocked exclamations of, "Where? Nooo! Oh really, how would we manage? Those people don't even speak English." Or cries of "What ever would we eat?"
It is of vested interest to those in the travel industry to establish resort areas which have three essential elements. Firstly, they mustn't be too far a plane ride from home. Secondly, they must be able to offer the food and entertainments that these people have grown accustomed to in their everyday lives. Lastly, the resort must be in a paradise-like setting which is close enough to the locals for viewing purposes, but not so close as to require having to intermingle with these denizens.
The intrepid traveller of 'Fraggle Rock' fame, on the other hand, likes his travel experience to be a bit more enriched. The purpose of his many varied walk-abouts was to sample, enjoy and learn about a place and its people. Perhaps the intrepid traveller is still dear to me because of his ability to face the unknown in such an unbiased, enthusiastic manner, even though he was only four inches tall and stuffed with cotton wool!


Part 5

You are going to read part of the preface from a book. For questions 45-50, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.


When Stephen King decided to publish his ghost story Riding the Bullet online, at a cost of $2.50, (although some of the various book-related sites he used did not charge anything), the 66-page book sold more copies than any of his conventional print novels had on their first day. King's e-¬book netted 400,000 orders during its first 24 hours of being made available on the Internet. Although the novelty factor cannot be discounted - after all, Stephen King is a world-famous best-selling author - the figures cannot fail to impress, marking the advent of the e-book format as a 'fait accompli'. Having said that, we should note that King himself, despite embracing new technology, has stated that he does not believe that anything will replace printed books.

King's caution is probably not far off the mark. The electronic transfer of print poses a number of problems. Firstly, it takes fifty percent longer to read a page of text on a computer than on paper. In addition, delivery on the Internet is slow, with the lack of bandwidth in the Internet's structure causing delays in downloading. To use Riding the Bullet as an example, the Associated Press managed to download it only after twenty-five hours and repeated attempts. If graphics are required, these take even more time and are therefore difficult to match with the more readily downloaded text. Lastly, in practical terms, even a miniature computer is less convenient to carry around than a book, magazine or newspaper, and not so easy to use.

Both readers and writers love the printed word, so they cannot be the spur to e-publishing. It is, rather, commercial interests that drive us on, not to improve the contents of what we read but rather in order to sell the computer hardware that makes e-books reality. Although undeniably more expensive than a bookcase or bookshelves (which are all you need for conventional printed books), this is not necessarily a negative development. However, without speed and quality of delivery, e-books are hardly worth the initial investment on hardware. Nevertheless, from the commercial point of view, once the infrastructure for the transmission of information has been set up, the cost of delivery for the provider, is minimal.

There are three main stages to publishing: content, production and delivery. The first of these is the least subject to change, except as shifts in readership tastes and language dictate. Production, on the other hand, is an ever-evolving process, although it goes on behind the scenes, as it were, unseen by the reader, and has been transformed over the past twenty years by the use of computers so that the third stage, delivery, no longer needs to be completed by physical means.

So what does the future hold for e-publishing? Various recent developments such as the Graphical User Interface (GUI), devised by Xerox, and its feature known for short as Wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) ensure that on¬screen and printed page correspond to each other and do what the writer and page designer intended. Additionally, as an article may be simultaneously reproduced on the printed page of a newspaper and on its website (more than fifty percent of all newspapers now having websites), a layout language which obviates the problem and extra work of having to publish two separate versions has now been devised. This layout language utilises structured data to enable publishers to use the same material to publish in both formats, print and electronic, with a minimum of additional work.

With the availability of WAP displays on our mobile phones, our teletext accompaniment to the TV, and our powered Pocket PC, is our relationship to the printed word going to change? Are we all destined, in the foreseeable future, to become screenagers unable to relate to print and paper, or even, in the worst case scenario, not only unable to read printed books but no longer able to manipulate a pen and write with it? Or will we still be renewing our library books and browsing round bookshops? I, for one, in common with Stephen King, hope and believe that it will be the latter.


Part 5

You are going to read part of an article on body language. For questions 45-50, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.


How aggressive would you say you were? We often hear that people are violent by nature - the frequency of crime and our seeming inability to avoid war would appear to bear this out. Human visual displays of aggression, though, are far more frequent than actual aggressive acts themselves, and are often enough to put the message across. These displays fall into three main categories: Intention Movements, Vacuum Gestures and Redirection Gestures.
Firstly, there are Intention Movements, where the attacker begins but does not complete a movement. Examples of this are the raised arm gesture or the clawed hands posture. Additionally, a foot may be lifted as if to kick. In each case, the action, although incomplete, is unmistakably a threat.
Then there is the action which, although complete, does not make contact with the enemy's body. This is known as the Vacuum Gesture. When somebody shakes his fist, punching the air, he is performing a Vacuum Gesture. Equally, a raised and wagging forefinger, however mild a reproof it may appear, is a Vacuum Gesture in which the finger is a miniature club symbolically beating your opponent over the head, or a small symbolic sword stabbing him.
Another form of aggressive body language is the Redirection Gesture. Here the attack is carried out and makes contact, but not with the victim. It is instead performed on the attacker's own body, as in the self-bite, the self-choke and the ubiquitous throat slit, where the aggressor draws a finger, representing a knife, across his own throat.
In addition to the movements as detailed above, there will be a characteristic fierce or aggressive facial expression, a tense body posture and exaggerated breathing. The attacker experiences, at the same time, an inner turmoil, a conflict of feelings between the desire to attack and to retreat, which is otherwise known as fight versus flight.
You will have seen a cat, when angry or threatened, with its fur bristling on end, its tail swishing, and its crablike gait. In common with many animal species, the cat is using a bodily threat display to intimidate an actual or potential foe. Throughout the animal kingdom, such displays of fur and feathers - or of fins, for fish - are utilised, erecting crests and fluffing out manes in order to make the creature appear more formidable, a "don't you mess with me!" message. Lacking such physical attributes, man must content himself with looking fierce, although this may be extended, culturally, to devices such as war paint, dancing, chanting, drumming, wearing uniforms and brandishing weapons, according to the society he belongs to. Whether it be via protest marches with banners and slogans, the taunting of the fans of one rival football team by another (all flaunting team colours), or a full military parade which displays a nation's military hardware, the "don't you mess with me/us!" idea is obvious.
What if a conflict between, say, two individuals actually takes place but is not in earnest? How do we know that it is only play? There are two metasignals, that is to say signals about signals, which indicate this. One is to check the two individuals' facial expressions. If they are smiling, the aggression is not serious. The second metasignal, in the case where the participants wear fierce or angry expressions as part of the game, is a lack of action economy. When fights are serious, no energy is wasted on exaggerated movements and every muscular act is intended to contribute to the maximum efficiency of the attack, whereas mock fights include unnecessary, exaggerated, even melodramatic moves, rather like a piece of theatre.
So there you have it. Aggression may be actual, or it may be only pretence, mere shadow boxing. Alternatively, it may stop at a threatening display and proceed no further. Either way, there is far more huff and puff than real violence in the end product. The little pigs usually escape.

310 - HW

1) Answering interview questions:

1. What are your long-range goals and objectives?
2. What are your short-range goals and objectives?
3. In what ways do you think you can make a contribution to our organization?
4. What have you learned from participation in extra-curricular activities?
5. How do you determine or evaluate success?
6. How do you plan to achieve your career goals?
7. What makes a job enjoyable for you?
8. Why did you decide to seek a position with this communication organization?
9. What two or three things would be most important to you in your job?
10. What do you know about the job?
11. How important is communication and interaction with others on your job?
12. Do you prefer to work by yourself or with others?


2) Useful language for making a presentation

1.MAKING A START
- Introducing yourself and your talk

Greeting, name, position:
- Good morning. My name’s (…). I’m ( the manager … ).
- Ladies and gentlemen. It’s an honour to have the opportunity to address such a distinguished audience.
- Good morning. Let me start by saying just a few words about my background. I started out in ...
- Welcome to (…). I knew I’ve met some of you, but just for the benefit of those I haven’t, my name’s (…).

Title / subject
- I’d like to talk (to you) today about …
- I’m going to present the recent …
( explain our position on …)
brief you on …;
(inform you about / describe… )

- The subject of my talk
focus presentation
topic paper (academic) ;
speech (usually to public audience)

Purpose / Objective
- We are here today to decide … ( agree …; learn about …)
- The purpose of this talk is to update you on … ( put you in the picture about …; give you the background to …)
- This talk is designed to act as a springboard for discussion. Start the ball rolling.

Length
- I shall only take (…) minutes of your time.
- I plan to brief.
- This should be only last (…) minutes.

Outline / Main parts
- I’ve divided my presentation/talk into four parts/sections. They are (…).
- The subject can be looked at under the following headings: (…).
- We can break this area down into the following fields:
Firstly / first of all …
Secondly / then / next …
Thirdly / and then we come to …
Finally / lastly / last of all ...

Questions
- I’d be glad to answer any questions at the end of my talk.
- If you have any questions, please feel free to interrupt.
- Please interrupt me if there’s something which needs clarifying.
Otherwise, there’ll be time for discussion at the end.

Reference to the audience
- I can see many of you are …;
- I know you’ve all travelled a long way.
- You all look as though you’ve heard this before.
- As I’m sure you know … ; - You may remember …
- We have all experienced … - As I’m sure we’d all agree …


2. LINKING THE PARTS – Linking ideas

Sequencing / Ordering
- Firstly … secondly … thirdly … ;
- Then … next … finally / lastly …
- Let’s start with …; - So that covers .... - Let’s move/go on to … ;
- Now we come to … ; - That brings us to … - Let’s leave that (there)… ;
- That covers … - Let’s get back to …; … and turn to …

Giving reasons / causes: Therefore / so; as a result; that’s why ;

Contrasting: But; however;

Comparing: similarly; in the same way;

Contrasting: in fact; actually;

Summarizing: to sum up; in brief / in short;

Concluding: in conclusion; to conclude;

Highlighting: in particular; especially;

Digressing: By the way ; in passing;

Giving examples: For example / for instance; such as;


HW:
1. Job Ad translation /from English into Mongolian /
2. Job Ad translation /from English into Mongolian /
3. Application filling
4. CV
5. Letters. Cover letter
6. Reference letter
7. Reading strategies
8. Translation methods