LANGUAGE PRACTICETEXTBOOK

FOR FIRST YEAR STUDENTS

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UNIT ONE

WINSTON CHURCHILL’S PREP SCHOOL

The school my parents have selected for my education was one of the most fashionable

and expensive in the country. It modeled itself upon Eton and aimed at being preparatory for

that Public School above all others. It was supposed to be the very last thing in schools. Only

ten boys in a class; electric light (then a wonder); a swimming pond; spacious football and

cricket grounds; two or three school treats, or “expeditions” as they were called, every term;

the masters all M.A.’s in gowns and mortarboards; a chapel of its own; no hampers allowed;

everything provided by the authorities. It was a dark November afternoon when we arrived at

this establishment. We had tea with the Headmaster, with whom my mother conversed in the

most easy manner. I was preoccupied with the fear of spilling my cup and so making “a bad

start”. I was also miserable at the idea of being left alone among all these strangers in this

great, fierce, formidable place. After all I was only seven, and I had been so happy in my

nursery with all my toys. I had such wonderful toys: a real steam engine, a magic lantern,

and a collection of soldiers already nearly a thousand strong. Now it was to be all lessons.

Seven or eight hours of lessons every day except half-holidays, and football or cricket in

addition.

When the last sound of my mother’s departing wheels had died away, the Headmaster

invited me to hand over any money I had in my possession. I produced my three half-crowns,

which were duly entered in a book, and I was told that from time to time there would be a

“shop” at the school with all sorts of things which one would like to have, and that I could

choose what I liked up to the limit of the seven and sixpence. Then we quitted the

Headmaster’s parlour and the comfortable private side of the house, and entered the more

bleak apartments reserved for the instruction and accommodation of the pupils. I was taken

into a Form Room and told to sit at a desk.

All the other boys were out of doors, and I was alone with the Form Master. He

produced a thin greeny-brown covered book filled with words in different types of print.

‘You have never done any Latin before, have you?’ he said.

‘No, sir.’

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‘This is a Latin grammar.’ He opened it at a well-thumbed page. ‘You must learn this,’

he said, pointing to a number of words in a frame of lines. ‘I will come back in half an hour

and see what you know.’

Behold me then on a gloomy evening, with an aching heart, seated in front of the First

Declension.

Mensa a table

Mensa O table

Mensam a table

Mensae of a table

Mensae to or for a table

Mensa by, with or from a table

What on earth did it mean? Where was the sense in it? It seemed absolute rigmarole to

me. However, there was one thing I could always do: I could learn by heart. And I thereupon

proceeded, as far as my private sorrows would allow, to memorize the task which had been

set me.

In due course the Master returned.

‘Have you learnt it?’ he asked.

‘I think I can say it, sir,’ I replied; and I gabbled it off.

He seemed so satisfied with this that I was emboldened to ask a question.

‘What does it mean, sir?’

‘It means what it says. Mensa, a table. Mensa is a noun of the First Declension. There

are five declensions. You have learnt the singular of the First Declension.’

‘But,’ I repeated, ‘what does it mean?’

‘Mensa means a table,’ he answered.

‘Then why does mensa also mean O table,’ I enquired, ‘and what does O table mean?’

‘Mensa, O table, is the vocative case,’ he replied.

‘But why O table?’ I persisted in genuine curiosity.

‘O table – you would use that in addressing a table, in invoking a table.’ And then

seeing he was not carrying me with him, ‘You would use it in speaking to a table.’

‘But I never do,’ I blurted out in honest amazement.

‘If you are impertinent, you will be punished, and punished, let me tell you, very

severely,’ was his conclusive rejoinder.

Such was my first introduction to the classics from which, I have been told, many of

our cleverest men have derived so much solace and profit.

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THE IDEA OF SUMMERHILL

This is a story of a modern school – Summerhill. Summerhill began as an

experimental school. It is no longer such; it is now a demonstration school, for it

demonstrates that freedom works.

When my first wife and I began the school, we had one main idea: to make

the school fit the child – instead of making the child fit the school.

Obviously, a school that makes active children sit at desks studying mostly

useless subjects is a bad school. It is a good school only for those who believe in

such a school, for those uncreative citizens who want docile, uncreative children

who will fit into a civilization whose standard of success is money.

I had taught in ordinary schools for many years. I knew the other way

well. I knew it was all wrong. It was wrong because it was based on an adult

conception of what a child should be and of how a child should learn.

Well, we set out to make a school in which we should allow children

freedom to be themselves. In order to do this, we had to renounce all discipline,

all direction, all suggestion, all moral training, all religious instruction. We have

been called brave, but it did not require courage. All it required was what we had

– a complete belief in the child as a good, not an evil, being.

My view is that a child is innately wise and realistic. If left to himself

without adult suggestion of any kind, he will develop as far as he is capable of

developing. Logically, Summerhill is a place in which people who have the innate

ability and wish to be scholars will be scholars; while those who are only fit to

sweep the streets will sweep the streets. But we have not produced a street cleaner

so far. Nor do I write this snobbishly, for I would rather see a school produce a

happy street cleaner than a neurotic scholar.

What is Summerhill like? …

… Well, for one thing, lessons are optional. Children can go to them or

stay away from them – for years if they want too. There is a timetable – but only

for the teachers.

The children have classes usually according to their age, but sometimes

according to their interests. We have no new methods of teaching, because we do

not consider that teaching in itself matters very much. Whether a school has or has

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not a special method for teaching long division is fo no importance except to those

who want to learn it. And the child who wants to learn long division will learn it

no matter how it is taught.

Summerhill is possibly that happiest school in the world. We have no

truants and seldom a case of homesickness. We rarely have fights – quarrels, of

course, but seldom have I seen a stand-up fight like the ones we used to have as

boys. I seldom hear a child cry, because children when free have much less hate to

express than children who are downtrodden. Hate breeds hate, and love breeds

love. Love means approving of children, and that is essential in any school. You

can’t be on the side of children if you punish them and storm at them. Summerhill

is a school in which the child knows that he is approved of.

The function of the child is to live his own life – not the life that his

anxious parents think he should live, nor a life according to the purpose of the

educator who thinks he knows what is best. All this interference and guidance on

the part of adults only produces a generation of robots.

In Summerhill, everyone has equal rights. No one is allowed to walk on

my great piano, and I am not allowed to borrow a boy’s cycle without his

permission. At a General School Meeting, the vote of a child of six counts for as

much as my vote does.

But, says the knowing one, in practice of course the voices of the

grownups count. Doesn’t the child of six wait to see how you vote before he raises

his hand? I wish he sometimes would, for too many of my proposals are beaten.

Free children are not easily influenced; the absence of fear accounts for this

phenomenon. Indeed, the absence of fear is the finest thing that can happen to a

child.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

SCHOOLS

Schools in Britain are of two types: state (or maintained) schools, which

charge no fees, and independent (or private) schools, which are fee-paying. There

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are far more state schools than independent schools, but some independent

schools, especially the older public schools, have retained considerable academic

and social prestige.

The school year usually runs from early September to mid-July and is

divided into three terms of about 12 weeks each.

State schools, which are funded by the government by the local education

authority (LEA), are primary, for children aged 5 to 11, and secondary, for pupils

aged 11 to 16 or 18, although in some areas there are first schools for children of 5

to 9, middle schools for ages 9 to 13, and secondary or upper schools. All children

must receive a full-time education from the age of 5 until the age of 16. Below

primary schools are nursery schools, for children under 5. Schools in the state

system can be county schools, owned as well as funded by the LEA, or voluntary

schools, founded by a voluntary body such as the Church of England or the

Roman Catholic Church.

In secondary education most schools (over eight out of ten) are

comprehensive schools, offering a general education to all children. There are also

a small number of secondary modern schools, offering a more practical education,

grammar schools, providing a more academic education, and technical schools,

offering a combination of academic and practical teaching. Children who go to a

secondary modern, grammar or technical school do so as a result of an

examination called the 11-plus or after some other selection procedure. There are

also special schools for children with a physical or mental disability.

In the independent sector, the main division is into preparatory schools, for

pupils aged 7 to 13, and public schools, for pupils aged 13 to 18. (The name

“public school” is historic, and refers to the fact that such schools were originally

opened to “the public”, taking pupils from any area, not just locally.) Almost all

independent schools are boarding schools, and unlike state schools are usually for

one sex only. About half the public schools, especially the oldest and best-known

ones, such as Eton, Harrow and Winchester, are for boys only. However, many

boys’ public schools take girls in the senior classes, and some are now fully co-

educational.

The fees in independent schools are usually several thousand pounds per

year. It is possible for a child to win an “assisted place” so that parents who

cannot afford the fees receive financial help from the government.

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State schools mostly have larger classes than independent schools, but all

schools share the same school-leaving examinations. The main exam is the

General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), normally taken at the age of

16, in which pupils sit papers in different subjects (usually five or more) and are

awarded a grade in each subject on a seven-point scale, A to G. A further

examination, normally taken two years after GCSE, is the A level (“A” meaning

“Advanced”). This is usually done in two or three subjects only. There are also S

and A/S-levels. S-level (“S” for “Special” or “Scholarship”) provides additional,

harder papers for A-level students. A/S level (“Advanced Supplementary”) is an

alternative to A level, with subjects studied on a broader, less specialized basis.

GCSE and A level exams are marked by one of the regional examining

boards. A level boards are mostly organized by a particular university, such as the

Cambridge University Local Examinations Syndicate or the University of Oxford

Delegacy of Local Examinations. Schools are free to choose a board in area.

Subjects taught in state schools are determined by the National

Curriculum. The Curriculum prescribes a course of central (“core”) subjects,

namely English, mathematics and science, and includes seven basic

(“foundation”) subjects, which are history, geography, technology, music, art,

physical education and (in secondary schools) a modern foreign language. There

are attainment targets for what children should be capable of doing and knowing

at the ages of 7, 11, 14 and 16. The National Curriculum was introduced by the

Education Reform Act of 1988, and this same Act enabled secondary schools to

opt out of the control of the LEA and to manage their own budget under a new

“local management of schools” (LMS) scheme.

All state schools are required to include religious education in their

syllabus, and they must also hold a daily act of worship. Parents have the right,

however, to withdraw their children from the latter. In practice most independent

schools also include religious education in their timetable, and many public

schools begin the day with a short religious service in the school chapel.

Preparatory schools (colloquially, “prep schools”) are so named because

they prepare pupils for entrance to public school. The examination which admits

them is the Common Entrance (so called because it is shared in common by most

public schools). It is taken at the age of 13 by boys but usually younger by girls.

The exam itself is set by the Common Entrance Examination Board but is marked

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by the public school, in which case they usually sit that school’s own special

exam as well.

Classes in a school are often designated as “year” (especially in state

schools) or “form” (more in independent schools). The fifth form is the one at

which GCSE is taken, while the sixth form is normally the one preparing for A

level, and so the senior class. (It is often divided into “lower sixth” and “upper

sixth” for the two years.)

Public schools are sometimes accused of being snobbish and “elitist”.

They are normally very well equipped, classes are smaller, teachers’ salaries are

higher, and many have a sustained record of academic excellence. Unlike state

schools, they often attach considerable importance to prowess at sport as well as

class work.

In the USA, there are state schools, known as “public schools”, which are

free, and private schools, which charge fees. Most children (at least eight out of

ten) attend public schools. The majority of private schools are sponsored by a

religious organization such as a church, and are often known as “parochial

schools”. One type of private school is the “preparatory school” or “prep school”,

so called as it prepares for university entrance. (“Preppy” is a colloquial term for

the fashionable style of dress of students at these schools.)

The school year runs from early-September to mid-June, with continuous

weekly attendance of five hours a day, five days a week, apart from seasonal

holidays. The main types of schools are elementary school, for children aged 6-12

or 6-14 and high school for students aged 14 or 15 to 18. There are also junior

high schools for 12-15-year olds. There is no fixed school-leaving age, but all

states require a child to attend school between prescribed ages, typically from 6 to

16. Classes are organized in “grades”, with grades 1 to 6 for elementary school

pupils, 7 to 9 for junior high school students, and 10 to 12 for senior high school

students. Pre-school education for children under 6 is in kindergarten classes

(often designated as grade K) or nursery schools.

There is no national curriculum, but basic subjects in elementary schools

are “language arts” (reading, grammar, composition and literature), “penmanship”

(writing), science, social studies (incorporating history and geography), music, art,

and physical education, while in high school they are English, science and

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mathematics, social studies and physical education. Religious instruction is part of

the curriculum in private schools, but is not given in public schools.

There are no national examinations. As pupils progress upwards from

grade to grade, they are assessed on the basis of performance in tests throughout

the year, participation in class discussions, and completion of written and oral

assignments. Some schools give their own end-of-year examinations, while a few

states, such as New York, give state examinations, which are set by the State

Department of Education.

The criterion for a particular student’s high school graduation (leaving

school with a diploma to show satisfactory completion of all courses) in the

number of “units” he has amassed. A high school unit equals about 120 hours

(three hours a week) of classes in one subject. The average state requirement is

17.5 units, but students planning to go on to college (university) might take over

20 units.

The normal pattern in high school is for a student to amass the required

number of units in basic subjects called “requirements”, then move on for the last

two years to specialist subjects, called “electives”, which vary from school to

school. A typical choice of electives might be European history for the first year

and world politics for the second.

Students are given “report cards” at least twice a year indicating the grades

they have been given in each subject. High schools keep a “transcript” or

summary of the courses taken and grades obtained, and then submit this to the

college to which the student has applied for admission.

POST-SCHOOL EDUCATION

In Britain, there are a number of ways to continue one’s education after

leaving secondary school at 16 or 18. Most post-school education is provided at

universities, polytechnics, colleges of further or higher education, adult education

centres, or various specialized colleges.

Degree-level courses are offered by universities, polytechnics and other

institutions of higher education, with about half the total number of students at

this level in universities.

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Entrance to such courses normally depends on satisfactory GCSE and A

level results, and acceptance, usually after an interview, by the university or

college concerned. Students do not normally apply to the university they wish to

apply, but apply through the Universities’ Central Council on Admissions

(UCCA). Oxford and Cambridge Universities take part in UCCA but also have a

system of entrance examinations and interviews by individual colleges.

All students on a university “first degree” course are automatically eligible

for a grant, awarded by a student’s local education authority (LEA). The amount

of the grant depends on the level of income of the student’s family. Because

entrance to higher education is selective, the majority of students successfully

complete their course, which usually lasts three years. Most first degrees are for

Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science (BSc). A “higher degree” is a

postgraduate degree taken after a first degree, for example Master of Arts (MA) or

Master of Science (MSc). Students may then proceed to research degrees such as

Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil or, at some

universities, PhD). For historical reasons, Oxford and Cambridge Universities

award MA degrees to all first-degree graduates without requiring them to take a

further examination.

There are just under 50 universities in Britain, of which one, Buckingham,

is private, and one, the Open University (OU), is open to students of any age

including those without formal qualifications. (The OU is not a resident

university, but provides tuition by radio and television, in classes at local centres

and at summer schools.) It has almost 100,000 students studying on first-degree

and postgraduate courses, as well as on shorter courses. Most of them are

employed people who study in their leisure time.

There are about 120 polytechnics and other institutions of higher education

funded by central government through the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding

Council. (Universities are also funded by central government through the

Universities Funding Council.) Polytechnics and colleges offer not only first or

higher degrees, but also other qualifications, such as a Diploma in Higher

Education (DipHE), Higher National Diploma (HND) or Higher National

Certificate (HNC). Polytechnics offer a wide range of subjects and many have

close links with industry and commerce in their local area. In recent years, many

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specialist colleges (teacher training colleges, and colleges of art, architecture,

music, etc.) have been incorporated into polytechnics.

Teachers in Britain either do a first degree and then a one-year course

leading to a Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE), or do a four-year

course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Education (BEd) at a polytechnic or

similar college.

Colleges of further education (CFEs), which are funded, like schools, by

local authorities, offer academic and vocational courses for students from the age

of 16. It is possible to study for GCSEs and A levels at a CFE. In the private

sector, there are many secretarial colleges offering business courses and language

schools, which specialize in teaching English as a foreign language.

Adult education centres offer a wide range of part-time courses, both

academic and practical, including subjects like computer studies, foreign

languages, cookery and sports skills. They may be funded by local education

authorities or by voluntary bodies. Universities also offer part-time courses in

their “extra-mural” or “continuing education” departments.

In the USA, most post-school education takes place in colleges and

universities. Colleges offer a four-year course to students aged between 18 and 22

and award bachelor’s degrees in arts and sciences. The first two years (for

“freshmen” and “sophomores” respectively) cover a broad range of subjects.

Students specialize in a major subject area in their third (“junior”) and fourth

(“senior”) years.

Colleges may be independent and privately controlled, or may operate as

the undergraduate division of a university. There are also junior colleges, or

“community colleges” as they are increasingly called, offering two-year courses at

the end of which they award “associate in arts” degrees as their highest

qualification.

Students do not gain a degree through a “finals” examination, as they do in

British Universities, but through the number of “credits” or hours of study they

accumulate. Their work is regularly assessed, with all the credits and grades

systematically recorded. At the end of the course, a student’s overall record is

examined to see if he or she deserves to be awarded a degree. Credits for work

done like this can sometimes be transferred between universities, so that a student

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may gain credits in one university, move to a second, and receive a degree from a

third.

American universities are of two kinds, state and private, most being

private. Harvard was the first of these to be founded, in 1636, and was originally a

college for the education of Puritan ministers. It is now one of the most

prestigious in the country. The first state university was that of North Carolina,

founded in 1795. Vassar, one of the leading women’s colleges, was founded in

1861. Most private universities founded in the 19th century were founded by gifts

from rich men. They include the well-known Johns Hopkins, Stanford and

Chicago Universities.

Once they have completed high school, students can apply to any college

or university they wish. Acceptance depends on high school grades, on the

students’ performances in a Standard Aptitude Test (SAT), which tests

mathematical, verbal and analytical skills, and on the number of places available.

All universities, even state ones, are fee-paying. The fees may be paid by a

student’s parents, but most students have to support themselves by “working their

way to college”, that is, by taking part-time jobs and working all through the long

summer vacation. The average annual cost of tuition, fees, and college room and

board at a private university is about $11,000, although some of the more

prestigious universities, such as Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, charge almost twice

this. At a state university it is around $4,500 for state residents, and over $7,000

for non-state residents. At a two-year college, tuition and fees are about $4,700.

For much of the present century, the state universities were regarded as

inferior to private ones. They have now improved their standards, however, and

increased in academic status. Each US state now has one or more state

universities. The State University of New York is essentially a “multiversity”,

with over 20 individual colleges and about 150,000 students. California State

University is similarly diverse, and although it has fewer colleges, it has at least

200,000 students. (Oxford and Cambridge, in Britain, have only about 13,000

students each.)

In the USA, as in Britain, some universities are regarded as socially and

academically superior to others. Although most colleges are now coeducational,

colleges that were once exclusively for male students are known as the “Ivy

League”, while those that were at one time solely for female students are called

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the “Heavenly Seven”. Ivy League colleges (so called because they belong to a

sports league of this name) are Harvard, Yale, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Columbia,

Brown, Dartmouth and Cornell. Heavenly Seven colleges (named for their

number, and sometimes known as the “Seven Sisters”) are Barnard (part of

Columbia University), Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe (part of Harvard),

Smith, Vassar and Wellesley.

American universities differ from British in their “fraternities” and

“sororities”. These are basically social clubs for men and women students

respectively. The name of each is made up of three Greek letters, for example

“Sigma Beta Chi”, and the letters are worn on small badges called “pins”. If a boy

gives his “fraternity pin” to a girl this is regarded as step on the way to an

engagement or a proposal of marriage.

Both fraternities and sororities run private halls of residence known as

“fraternity houses” or “sorority houses”, and these are used for entertaining. Both

fraternities and sororities exist independently of the university, and are usually

organized on a national basis.

Reading comprehension

1. What is the child’s attitude in Winston Churchill’s Prep School? What

is the teacher’s method? What is the teacher’s attitude towards the school?

2. What attitude and philosophy does Summerhill propose?

3. Compare Winston Churchill’s school with Summerhill.

4. Make a comparison between the Romanian educational system and the

Anglo-Saxon one.

Vocabulary practice

I. Choose the most suitable word underlined.

1. As there is little hope of being rescued, I have

abandoned/decided/resigned myself to the worst.

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2. Tom didn’t believe us, and it took a long time to

convince/establish/persuade him.

3. I define/regard/suppose this project as the most important in my career.

4. In my point of view/viewpoint/view, this plan will not work.

5. Are you aware/conscious/knowledgeable that $10000 has gone missing?

6. I haven’t really the faintest sense/notion/opinion of what you are talking

about.

7. Mr Smith has appointed his best friend as the new director! It’s a clear

case of favouritism/prejudice/subjectivity.

8. Your new boyfriend recollects/remembers/reminds me of a cousin of

mine.

9. Sue just can’t stop thinking about football! She is

biased/concerned/obsessed with her local team!

10. I just can’t understand the attitude/manners/mentality of people who

are cruel to animals.

II. Complete each sentence with one of the words given. Do not use a

word more than once.

conceited envious naughty unscrupulous

conscientious lenient rash

considerate loyal sentimental

1. John’s children used to be well-behaved but now they are quite ……….

2. When my brother managed to buy a sports car, I was really ……….

3. Steve thinks too much of himself. He’s very ……… in fact.

4. Helen now realises that suddenly giving up her job was rather ……….

5. My new assistant couldn’t care less about his work. I need someone

who is much more ……….

6. Thank you for all your help. You have been very ……….

7. Mary talks about the past all the time, as if everything in her life was

better then. She does tend to be rather ……….

8. I suppose I should punish you, but instead I’m going to be ……….

9. Janet doesn’t care about right and wrong when she wants to make a sale.

She is totally ……….

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10. Thank you all for standing by the company during this difficult time.

You have all been very ……….

III. Replace the words underlined with one of the words or phrases given.

Do not use a word or phrase more than once.

cherished loathed regretted stressed

deplored mourned reproached

dreaded offended resented

1. Peter was very sorry about leaving his old job.

2. The Prime Minister strongly disapproved of the behaviour of the

demonstrators.

3. Lily felt bitter about the fact that everyone had been promoted except

her.

4. David felt extremely worried about visiting the dentist.

5. Sally held very dear the memory of her childhood in the country.

6. Neil grieved for the death of his mother and father for many weeks.

7. I am sorry if I hurt the feelings of your sister.

8. Brenda really felt a strong dislike for her new boss.

9. Our teacher laid emphasis on the importance of regular study.

10. Jim strongly criticised me for not doing my fair share of the work.

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UNIT 2

IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH

MUSCLE BINDS

‘Where’s the virtue in sport, fitness and the body beautiful?’ asks Dina La

Vardera. ‘It’s high time you hung up your trainers and exercised your mind, not

your body.’

Think about the things in life that give you most pleasure. Watching

television, perhaps, while sipping chilled lager? How about eating lasagne verde

by candlelight in a favourite Italian restaurant? What do they all have in common?

They all involve nothing more strenuous than sitting or lying down.

Why, then, this present mania for doing things that necessitate remaining

vertical or running around? I hate exercise and all forms of sport and I abhor the

smugness and self-righteousness of those who think developing rippling muscles

and flat stomachs superior to the cultivation of personality, manners, good taste in

art, music, literature and food. I hate the multi-million propaganda that

accompanies the body beautiful, with its lure of glamour and eternal youth.

I was brought up to believe that physical exercise was bad for one, and

experience seems to support my parents’ philosophy that pain, suffering and ill-

health result from anything more strenuous than walking to the pillar box on the

corner or digging the allotment. This has been reinforced over the years by reports

of footballers with torn ligaments, athletes crippled by arthritis, or joggers

dropping dead with heart attacks.

Most people’s early experiences of exercise – after crawling into furniture

– come from school, and I suppose their future attitude to it is shaped then. The

present decline in PE in schools only shows up the failings of a system that

flourishes on the brutality of competition, the fallacies of team spirit and character

building, and the general humiliation of young and sensitive beings.

Don’t let all the youngsters – and let’s face it most of the oldsters, dressed

up in their snazzy sports suits – fool you with their high-tech trainers and pump

attachments to inflate their insoles and their egos. Apart from the odd football

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fanatic, muscle-man pumping iron and aerobic freak, wouldn’t they rather be

eating a hamburger with their mates in town?

We are all followers of fashion in some way, and exercising is a fashion,

an ephemeral fad. It saves a lot of trouble if early on in life you put your cards on

the table and announce to the world that exercise and sport are a bore, a real drag

and you have better things to do. It certainly save you from requests to join in

marathons for charity and fun games with colleagues.

But people who take exercise don’t see it like that. They are full of their

own importance and rightness. It’s all so serous, like religion. And you are one of

the pagans. It’s difficult talking to sporty people: they get a far-off look in their

eyes and their feet keep moving on the spot.

Exercising makes people think that they can live forever. It puts off the

moment of realisation that we are mortal. If you don’t stay still long enough you

don’t have to think about such things. Coming to terms with oneself, finding out

who one is and where one is going, come from within, not from running round a

park with 2,000 other people.

Exercise is repetitive and unending: once you stop, your shape is gone and

the pulse slows down again. It is isolationist. All you get is an obsession with your

body. And it’s expensive: in terms of time, effort and material things like club

fees, equipment and special outfits.

But take heart, for the best club to join is free, has no age limit, requires no

previous experience or special outfits. It’s right their in your front room.

Welcome, Couch Potatoes, to your rightful place beside the fire.

Reading comprehension

A. Read this advice:

‘It’s high time you hung up your trainers and exercised your mind and not

your body.’

Explain what this advice means. Who might it be given to? Is it sensible

advice?

18

B. Decide whether the statements below are true or false, according to

what you have read in the above text.

1. The things that give us the most pleasure in life involve us

in very little physical activity.

2. The writer is a great believer in regular physical exercise.

3. Physical exercise is apparently a very dangerous thing to

indulge in.

4. Competitive sports and a team spirit build up one’s

character.

5. Wearing sports clothes is no indication of a truly ‘sporty’

character.

6. By declaring yourself anti-sports you are spared

participation in undesirable sporting activities.

7. Sports enthusiasts are sympathetic towards those who do

not share their interests.

8. Exercise gives one a false sense of security.

9. Once you start exercising you have to continue with it.

10. The true path to contentment lies in becoming a couch

potato.

C. The passage above is written in a very chatty, informal style. Which of

the following devices does the writer use to create this informality?

rhetorical questions abbreviations imperatives repetition slang

direct address

Vocabulary practice

I. In the article we have the expression come to terms with. Look at

the following diagram of this and other uses of the verb come and

choose one in its correct form to complete the sentences below.

comein for something out with something

(be exposed to something unpleasant) (say something surprising)

19

down (heavily) on somebody up with something

(criticize or punish) (produce an idea)

down with something to the point

(catch an illness) (reach a conclusion)

to terms with something round

(accept a situation as it is) (regain consciousness)

1. His wife died last year and he still cannot …………… her death.

2. The new law …………… those driving with no proper tax and

insurance.

3. My little girl …………… some strange expressions. Goodness knows

where she hears them.

4. Although he’s an entertaining speaker, it takes him ages to ……………

5. After deliberating for several hours we finally …………… a possible

solution to the problem.

6. Soon after their arrival at the holiday resort they all …………… flu.

7. When he …………… after the operation, he had absolutely no idea

where he was.

8. I’m afraid we have …………… a lot of criticism over our discussion to

close the hospital.

II. There are many colourful idioms like couch potato in English. Can

you match the explanations a – h to the idiomatic expressions 1 –

8? They are all connected with different kinds of people.

1. a new broom

2. a wet blanket

3. a stuffed shirt

4. a couch potato

5. an armchair critic

6. a fair weather friend

7. a nosy parker

8. a rolling stone

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a. someone who expresses opinions about things he/she

knows very little about

b. someone who has no fixed roots

c. a pompous, self-opinionated person

d. a gossip who wants to know everything that happens

to other people

e. someone who stands by you only when things are

going well

f. someone who likes to sit in comfort and do nothing

g. a new person in charge who makes changes

h. someone who does not want to join in and spoils the

fun for everybody else

In pairs, choose one of the expressions above. Write a short dialogue or a

context using the expression you have chosen, illustrating what the idiom means in

a humorous way.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

HEALTH AND ILLNESS

1. Study the ‘case history’ below.

‘You’re in perfect health … as fit as a fiddle … there’s nothing wrong with you.’

‘I feel a bit off-colour … rather under the weather … I do feel funny … I really

don’t feel well … I think I’m sickening for something … I feel feverish … like death

warmed up.’

‘He’s been taken ill … he’s in a coma … fighting for his life … still critically ill

… in a very critical condition … no change … still seriously ill … still hasn’t regained

consciousness … is responding to treatment … off the danger list … showing signs of

coming round … making progress … his condition is satisfactory … he’s out of the

coma … he’s as well as can be expected … comfortable … no change … he’s turned the

corner … he’s on the mend.’

21

‘We all wish you a speedy recovery … get well soon … we’re glad you’re over it.’

‘The worst is over … he’s almost completely recovered … he’s practically

cured … he’s convalescing … coming along nicely … he’ll be on his feet again soon …

he’ll be out and about again in a few days.’

‘He’s had a relapse … he’s no better … he’s getting worse … his condition is

deteriorating … he’s getting weaker … he’s slipping away … fading fast … his life is

hanging by a thread … it’s just a matter of time … he could go at any second!’

‘He’s made a miraculous recovery … he’s as good as new … as right as rain …

he’ll live till he’s a hundred.’

2. After all that, do you feel well enough to read on? Note the ways that illnesses

can be spoken of and reported in the text below.

Examination fever

For most of the year, most of us had been allergic to work; apparently there had

been a history of such allergies in the school.

Throughout the spring there had been quite a few cases of ‘Exams are stupid’,

which proved highly contagious among friends.

Then late in May, one or two of us suffered a mild attack of ‘Gosh, is it really next

month?’ and we seemed to give that to the others rather rapidly. You could tell how it was

spreading from improved attendance at lessons.

An even more serious outbreak was that of the very infectious ‘I don’t know a

thing’ two weeks before. At about the same time everyone seemed to catch ‘You’re no

good!’ from the teachers. Then there was a bout of ‘I don’t really care’ followed by a few

chronic cases of ‘My parents will kill me’. This again proved very catching; half the class

was down with it in the week leading up to the exam itself, and it had reached epidemic

proportions by the Friday before.

By this time, those who had been suffering from ‘It’ll be easy for me’ had made a

total recovery.

That Friday there was a ‘What if I’m suffering from amnesia?’ scare, and this had

developed by Monday into a touch of ‘I can’t even remember my own name’.

There were also, of course, the normal isolated cases of ‘My pen doesn’t work’ and

several pupils had a sudden fit of ‘Where’s the toilet?’

22

Afterwards there were a couple of complaints of ‘I know I’ve failed’, but generally

the worst seemed to be over. Such diseases are rarely terminal. And after all, we had a

convalescence and recuperation period of six and a half weeks to follow.

3. Complete the conversation with the correct idioms in the correct form.

1. run a temperature

2. on top of the world

3. come down with (an illness)

4. up to the mark

5. pass away

6. worn out

7. laid up

8. on the mend

9. throw off (an illness)

10. catch a cold

Health, illness, death

‘Do you know that Mr Sykes has ………? The funeral’s on Friday. He was only

fifty-five.’

‘Yes, I heard. It was a sudden heart attack. Very sad. I saw him only last week and

he said that apart from having a lot of work he was feeling ………. But I thought he

looked tired, ………, in fact. But tell me, how’s your husband?’

‘Well, he ……… a week ago and he doesn’t seem able to ……… (it). Several of his

office colleagues have ……… flu. He’s ……… as well, just over a hundred, so I called

the doctor this morning. After all, I don’t want him to be ……… for Christmas.’

‘No, of course not. My husband hasn’t been feeling ……… recently, either.

Stomach trouble. But he must be ………. Now because he was shouting at the

neighbour’s cat again this morning as usual.’

23

UNIT 3

LANGUAGE, GENDER AND SOCIAL LIFE

THE MORALS OF GOSSIP

Gossip has always had a terrible reputation. A sin against charity, they

said, quoting St. Paul. The odd, vivid term sometimes used for it was backbiting.

The word suggested a sudden, predatory leap from behind – as if gossip’s hairy

maniacal figure landed on the back of the victim’s neck and sank its teeth into the

spine, killing with vicious little calumnies: venoms and buzzes.

Gossip is rarely that wild. From the morning of the first individual folly of

the race, gossip has been the normal nattering background noise of civilization. To

say that gossip has been much condemned is like saying that sex has sometimes

been held in low esteem. It is true, but it misses some of the fun of the thing.

Gossip has always been one of the evil pleasures. It is unworthy, nosy,

hypocritical and moralistic, a sort of participatory nastiness. But does it play a

heroic moral role hitherto unnoticed? Is gossip merely a swamp that breeds

mosquitoes and disease? (“Each man walks with his head in a cloud of poisonous

flies,” wrote Tennyson.) Or does it have higher functions in the ecosystem?

Large claims have often been made for homely old salacious gossip – the

sort of assertions, one might think, that sweating pornographers used to make in

court about the “redeeming social value” of their work. All storytelling, hence

most of literature from Homer onward, rises from gossip’s fertile lowlands. What

we hear in Tolstoy or Flaubert or Dickens or Proust, wrote novelist Mary

McCarthy, ‘is the voice of a neighbour relating the latest gossip.’

The highly vulnerable Oscar Wilde went so far as to say that all history is

gossip. Such gossip, unlike history, tends to evaporate. Gossip is certainly an

instrument of power; Lyndon Johnson understood the magic leverage to be gained

from intimate personal details, artfully dispensed. He made it a point to know the

predilections of friends, the predicaments of enemies, orchestrating whole

symphonies of power upon his own ego. Conversely, gossip seems to cherish a

democratic, even subversive impulse: it likes to knock down authority a little.

24

That is why royal families make their servants sign oaths not to write (gossip)

about what goes on in the private quarters.

In the late 20th century, technology has immeasurably complicated the

business of gossip. Television, radio, the people pages of newspapers and

magazines have all conspired to create international class gossip. This

macrogossip detaches the usual human taletelling from its local roots. The result

is sometimes a resonant emptiness, the feeling of futility that might overcome the

soul after watching Bob Hope and Brooke Shields host a television special.

Macrogossip tends to be exemplary, cautionary, ceremonial and merely

entertaining – like public hangings.

But microgossip – the myriad back-nipping, back-fence, kitchen-table,

men’s room exchanges all over the world, the low animated buzz of dirt-dishing

that emanates from the globe – is the kind of gossip that may perform a kind of

social mission. Microgossip keeps tumbling in like the surf: routines about Sylvia,

about to be fired, and Karl, who can’t get a divorce, and Dorothy’s Valium.

Perhaps most of the world’s gossip – both macro and micro – is done for

the interest and entertainment of it. At certain dinner parties in Georgetown and

Beverly Hills and East Hampton (cannibals’ picnics, nights of the long knives),

the gossip is a combination of dispassionate vivisection and blood sport:

reputations are expertly filleted and the small brown pits of egos are spit out

decorously into spoons and laid at the edge of the plate.

Gossip goes in for the negative, not the positive. It is no doubt mean-

spirited. Gossip favours, even enjoys, dirt (the failings of the character). Yet,

oddly, people do not seem to object to being gossiped about as much as they once

did. After all, as macrogossip has instructed, any gossip is a form of attention, a

sort of evanescent celebrity. Even gossip works to keep away what Saul Bellow

called “the wolf of insignificance”. Privacy is not the highest priority; on the

contrary, a certain emotional exhibitionism has been gaining ground. Of course, it

can get out of hand: a man happy enough to be gossiped about as the office

philanderer might grow queasy at learning that gossip is calling him a

sadomasochist.

If much gossip is retailed for the enjoyment of the exchange, the simple

human interest in the passing pageant of follies, it also has subtler purposes.

25

Gossip – which concerns people, while rumour concerns events – is usually an

instrument with which people unconsciously evaluate moral contexts.

‘Did you see that Glen and Carolyn got out of the same cab at work this

morning? And Carolyn was wearing the same dress she had on yesterday?’ In

gossiping about, say, an office adultery, gossipers will weigh and sift and test the

morals involved. Gossip is intimate news (perhaps even false ones), but it is also a

procession of ethical problems. In gossiping, people try to discover their own

attitudes towards such behaviour – and the reactions of others. It is also a medium

of self-disclosure, a way of dramatizing one’s own feelings about someone else’s

behaviour, a way of asserting what we think acceptable or unacceptable. In a book

called The Moralities of Everyday Life, psychologists John Sabini and Maury

Silver write that ‘gossip brings ethics home by introducing abstract morality to the

mundane. Moral norms are abstract. To decide whether some particular, concrete

unanalysed action is forbidden, tolerated, encouraged, or required, principles must

be applied to the case.’

If that is so, then gossip (whatever its individual destructiveness, which

can be awesome – ask Othello) also serves as a profound act of community.

Through the great daily bazaar of bitchiness (men can be just as bitchy as women)

passes a dense and bewildering parade of follies. They involve sex and money and

alcohol and children and jobs and cruelty and treachery: mostly variations on the

seven deadly sins. Gossip is a safe way of sorting out this amoral brawl. It is a

form of improvisational daydreaming. ‘Both the virtue and vice of gossip,’ write

Sabini and Silver, ‘ is that one doesn’t confront accusers, or demand proof…

Gossip is transitional between things merely said, or even half said, and positions

taken in the public domain. Gossip is a training ground for both self-clarification

and public moral action.’ Gossip is the layman’s mythmaker and moralist, the

small, idle interior puppet-theatre in which he tries out new plays, new parts for

himself.

26

DON’T TALK, LISTEN!

‘In mixed-sex classrooms, it is often extremely difficult for females to

talk, and even more difficult for teachers to provide them with the opportunity’.

Dale Spender looks at some myths about language and sex differences.

Ours is a society that tries to keep the world sharply divided into

masculine and feminine, not because that is the way the world is, but because that

is the way we believe it should be. It takes unwavering belief and considerable

effort to keep this division. It also leads us to make some fairly foolish

judgements, particularly about language.

Because we think that language also should be divided into masculine and

feminine we have become very skilled at ignoring anything that will not fit our

preconceptions. We would rather change what we hear than change our ideas

about the gender division of the world. We will call assertive girls unfeminine,

and supportive boys effeminate, and try to change them while still retaining our

stereotypes of masculine and feminine talk.

This is why some research on sex differences and language has been so

interesting. It is an illustration of how wrong we can be. Of the many investigators

who set out to find the stereotyped differences in language, few have had any

positive results. It seems that our images of serious taciturn male speakers and

gossipy garrulous female speakers are just that: images.

Many myths associated with masculine and feminine talk have had to be

discarded as more research has been undertaken. If females do use more trivial

words than males, stop talking in mid-sentence, or talk about the same things over

and over again, they do not do it when investigators are around.

None of these characteristics of female speech have been found. And even

when sex differences have been found, the question arises as to whether the

difference is in the eye – or ear – of the beholder, rather than in the language.

Pitch provides one example. We believe that males were meant to talk in

low pitched voices. We also believe that low pitch is more desirable. Well, it has

been found that males tend to have lower pitched voices than females. But it has

also been found that this difference cannot be explained by anatomy.

27

If males do not speak in high pitched voices, it is not usually because they

are unable to do so. The reason is more likely to be that there are penalties. Males

with high pitched voices are often the object of ridicule. But pitch is not an

absolute, for what is considered the right pitch for males varies from country to

country.

Some people have suggested that gender differentiation in America is

more extreme than in Britain. This perhaps helps to explain why American males

have deeper voices. (Although no study has been done, I would rather suspect that

the voices of Australian males are even lower.) This makes it difficult to classify

pitch as a sex difference.

It is also becoming increasingly difficult to classify low pitch as more

desirable. It is less than 20 years since the BBC Handbook declared that females

should not read the news, because their voices were unsuitable for serious topics.

Presumably women’s voices have been lowered in that 20 years, or high pitch is

not as bad as it used to be.

Research into sex differences and language may not be telling us much

about language, but it is telling us a great deal about gender, and the way human

beings strive to meet the expectations of the stereotype. Although as a general rule

many of the believed sex differences in language have not been found (and some

of the differences which have been found by gender-blind investigators cannot be

believed) there is one area where this is an exception. It is the area of language

and power.

When it comes to power, some very interesting sex differences have been

found. Although we may have been able to predict some of them, there are others

which completely contradict our beliefs about masculine and feminine talk.

The first one, which was to be expected, is that females are more polite.

Most people who are without power and find themselves in a vulnerable position

are more polite. The shop assistant is more polite than the customer; the student is

more polite than the teacher; the female is more polite than the male. But this has

little to do with their sex, and a great deal to do with their position in society.

Females are required to be polite, and this makes them responsible with

accommodating male talk. This is where some of the research on sex differences

in language has been surprising. Contrary to our beliefs, it has been found

repeatedly that males talk more.

28

When it comes to husbands and wives, males not only use longer

sentences, they use more of them. Phylis Chesler has also found that it is difficult

for women to talk when men are present – particularly if the men are their

husbands.

Although we might all be familiar with the sight of a group of women

sitting silently listening to a male speaker, we have rarely encountered a group of

men sitting quietly listening to a female speaker. Even a study of television

programmes has revealed the way that males talk, and females accommodate male

talk; men are the talkers, women the polite, supportive and encouraging listeners.

If females want to talk, they must talk to each other, for they have little

opportunity to talk in the presence of men. Even when they do talk, they are likely

to be interrupted. Studies by Don Zimmerman and Candace West have found that

98 per cent of interruptions in mixed sex talk were performed by males. The

politeness of females ensures not only that they do not interrupt, but that they do

not protest when males interrupt them.

The greater amount of man-talk and the greater frequency of interruptions

is probably something that few of us are conscious of: we believe so strongly in

the stereotype which insists that it is the other way around. However, it is not

difficult to check this. It can be an interesting classroom exercise.

It was an exercise I set myself at a recent conference of teachers in

London. From the beginning the men talked more because although there were

eight official male speakers, there were no female ones. This was seen as a

problem, so the organizing committee decided to exercise positive discrimination

in favour of female speakers from the floor.

At the first session – with positive discrimination – there were 14 male

speakers and nine female: at the second session there were 10 male speakers and

four female. There was almost twice as much man talk as woman talk. However,

what was interesting was the impression people were left with about talk. The

stereotypes were still holding firm. Of the 30 people consulted after the sessions,

27 were of the opinion that there had been more female than male speakers.

This helps to explain some of the contradictions behind sex differences in

language. On the one hand we believe that females talk too much; on the other

hand we have ample evidence that they do not talk as much as males. But the

contradiction only remains when we use the same standard for both sexes; it

29

disappears when we use a double standard, with one rule for females and another

for males.

A talkative female is one who talks about as much as a man. When

females are seen to talk about half as much as males they are judged to be

dominating the talk. This is what happened at the conference. Although females

were less than half of the speakers, most people thought they had dominated the

talk.

This double standard was not confined to the general session; it was also

present in the workshop on sexism and education. At the first workshop session

there were 32 females and five males. When the tape was played afterwards, it

was surprising to find that of the 58 minutes of talk 32 were taken up by males.

It was surprising because no one realized, myself included, just how much

the males were talking. Most people were aware that the males had talked

disproportionately but no one had even guessed at the extent. We all, male and

female alike, use the double standard. Males have to talk almost all the time

before they are seen to be dominating the talk.

There are numerous examples of the ways in which males can assume the

right to talk in mixed-sex groups. Not only can they use their power to ensure that

they talk more, but that they choose the topic. The polite female is always at a

disadvantage.

It is not polite to be the centre of conversation and to talk a lot – if one is

female. It is not polite to interrupt – if one is female. It is not polite to talk about

things which interest you – if one is female. It is polite to accommodate, to listen,

to be supportive and encouraging to male speakers – if one is female.

So females are kept in their place. They enjoy less rights to talk. Because

they have less power and because politeness is part of the repertoire of successful

feminine behaviour, it is not even necessary to force women to be quiet. The

penalties are so great if they break the rule, they will obligingly monitor

themselves.

In the past few years, a lot of attention has been paid to the role of

language and learning, but the assumption has been that the sexes have enjoyed

equal rights to talk. Yet it is quite obvious that females do not have equal access

to talk outside the classroom, so it would be surprising if this was reversed in the

school.

30

However, if talking for learning is as important as Douglas Barnes

maintains it is, then any teacher in a mixed-sex class who upholds the social rules

for talk could well be practising educational discrimination. Such teachers would

be allowing boys to engage in talk more frequently than girls.

In looking at talk, it becomes clear that there are differences in girls’

single-sex and mixed-sex schools. In single-sex schools (providing, of course, that

the teacher is female), females are not obliged to defer to male authority, to

support male topics, to agree to interruptions, or to practise silence; or to make the

tea while the males make the public speeches.

‘Free speech’ is available to females in a way which is not available in

mixed-sex schools. This could be the explanation for the frequently claimed

superior achievement of females in single-sex schools; free to use language to

learn, they learn more.

In mixed-sex classrooms it is often extremely difficult for females to talk,

and even more difficult for teachers to provide them with the opportunity. This is

not because teachers are supremely sexist beings, but because they are governed

by the same social rules as everyone else.

It is appropriate for normal boys to demand more of the teachers’ time,

and they cannot always modify this situation. Male students in the classroom

conform to expectations when they are boisterous, noisy and even disruptive;

female students conform when they are quiet and docile; teachers conform when

they see such behaviour as gender appropriate.

When questioned, some teachers have stated, in fairly hostile terms, that

the girls in the classrooms talk all the time – to each other! This of course is a

logical outcome under the present rules for talk: females do not get the same

opportunity to talk when males are around. If females want to talk, they

experience difficulties if they try to talk with males.

In visiting classrooms, I have often observed the teacher engaged in a class

discussion with the boys, while the girls chat unobtrusively to one another. I have

seen girls ignored for the whole lesson, while the teacher copes with the demands

of the boys. I have heard boys praised for volunteering their answers, while girls

have been rebuked for calling out.

Angela Parker has found that not only do males talk more in class, but that

both sexes believe that ‘intellectual argumentation’ in the classroom is a

31

masculine activity. If girls believe that it is unfeminine for them to speak up in

class, they will probably take silence in preference to a loss of femininity –

particularly during adolescence.

I asked a group of girls at an Inner London secondary school whether they

thought it was unfeminine to speak up in class. They all agreed. The girls thought

it natural that male students should ask questions, make protests, challenge the

teacher and demand explanations. Females on the other hand should ‘just get on

with it’ – even when they, too, thought the work was silly, or plain boring.

Although it is unlikely that teachers deliberately practise discrimination

against their students on the grounds of sex, by enforcing the rules for talk they

are unwittingly penalizing females. But this situation is not inevitable. There is no

physical reason, no sex difference, which is responsible for the relative silence of

females. As John Stuart Mill stated, this asymmetry depends upon females

willingly conceding the rights to males.

Perhaps teachers can help females to be a little less willing to be silent in

mixed-sex classrooms. Perhaps they can help females to enjoy the same rights to

talk as males. But we would have to change our stereotypes.

Reading Comprehension

I. Answer these questions in groups. Make sure that you are

able to justify your answers.

1. Which of the following would make the best title for the

passage?

a. How men discriminate against women in talk

b. Changing our stereotypes of males and females

c. Recent research into sex differences in language

d. Sex inequalities in classroom talk

2. What may have been the writer’s main purpose?

a. To report

b. To persuade

c. To inform

d. To instruct

32

3. a. Find the places in the first section of the passage where the

following words are used:

preconceptions myths stereotypes

b. These words all refer to the same idea. What is it?

c. These words have been chosen to suggest the writer’s viewpoint.

What is her viewpoint?

d. Make a list of the myths associated with masculine and feminine

language which the writer mentions in the text.

4. The diagram below represents the traditional approach to

male/female language differences which Spender describes.

Basic beliefs about male/female language differences:

Preconceptions about male/female language differences: Ignore

conflicting evidence

a. Use the information in the diagram to summarize what

his traditional approach consists of.

b. What is Spender’s opinion about this traditional

approach?

5. The third and fourth paragraphs describe what has led to the

preconceptions being challenged.

a. State what this is.

b. Explain why the preconceptions have had to be

discarded.

6. ‘Pitch provides one example’

a. What does ‘pitch’ provide an example of?

b. What is the preconception about pitch which Spender

challenges?

c. What is the true explanation for male/female pitch

differences?

d. What evidence does Spender give for this explanation?

33

7. Paragraph ten has two main discourse functions. One is to

summarize the writer’s argument up to this point. Can you say

what the other function is?

8. Study this diagram which shows how the topic is organized in

the first section of the passage.

Traditional approach to male/female language differences –

Challenging the preconceptions – An example (Pitch) –

Summarizing and preparing for the next section

Read through the first section again, concentrating on how the topic

is developed.

II. The questions in this activity will help you understand how the

writer develops her argument in the second section.

1. Which of these statements best describes the relationship

between the topic in section one and that of section two in the

passage?

a. Whereas section one deals with some common fallacies

regarding male/female language differences, section two

deals with some real differences.

b. Section one explains some fallacies regarding

male/female language differences and section two

illustrates these fallacies.

c. In section one arguments relating to sex differences in

language use are considered; in section two these

arguments are rejected.

d. In section one the writer’s general position regarding sex

differences in language is outlined; in section two this

position is illustrated.

2. Which of the following statements are true and which are false?

Rewrite the false ones to make them an accurate record of what

the writer says.

a. Women are more polite than men simply because they

are women.

34

b. The common belief that women talk more than men has

been found to be incorrect.

c. Women find it easier to talk when men are present if the

men are their husbands.

d. Women do not interrupt as much as men in mixed-sex

talk.

e. We perceive men as dominating talk because they talk

more than women.

f. Men are responsible for keeping women in their place by

the way they dominate talk.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

GENDER AND LANGUAGE

Introduction

This section is concerned with the differences between the way women

and men use language. It will also be concerned with why these differences arise.

It is possible that some differences between the language of men and women stem

from differences in anatomy and physiology. The view taken here, however, is

that the more significant differences are socially constructed. In other words, there

are social expectations of how to be male or female; the genetic code may

determine our sex, but social codes provide us with a repertoire of behaviour

which defines our gender. For that reason the term ‘gender’ rather than ‘sex’ has

been adopted to discuss the linguistic differences between men and women.

The distinction between gender and sex is important because although all

documented societies find the basic differences between the male body and the

female body important, there remains a great deal of variation over what is

deemed appropriate behaviour for women and men from one society to another

and from one historical period to another. These changing patterns of difference

between male and female are, in effect, gender differences – social and cultural

impositions on the ‘natural’ categories of sex. In recognizing this additional level

of gender, we allow for the possibility of change – even of a deliberate kind, and

35

perhaps, to some extent, of choice, and these gender differences include not just

features of observable behaviour but extend to our whole way of regarding

ourselves as male and female: i.e. they include questions both of gender role

(ways of behaving) and also of gender identity (ways of relating to ourselves and

others).

Accordingly, when the new born child is identified on the basis of

anatomy as either a girl or a boy, it is only the beginning of a long process in

which it will learn contrasting kinds of gender role and identity. In this process

language has an important part to play. For language comprises not only a

significant element in behaviour, signalling a great deal about our social origins; it

also helps us to formulate concepts and ways of meaning that are crucial to the

construction of our identity. If obvious gender differences are signalled in part by

surface contrasts in dress and demeanour, it is likely that even more profound

differences of gender role and identity are carried by language.

Do men and women talk differently? – the claims and the evidence

One important way in which language interacts with aspects of gender role

and identity is through the commonsense beliefs and stereotypes that are held

about the basic differences between the language of men and women. Women, it

is said, are less assertive (more tentative) in their speech then men; it is said that

they use fewer taboo forms and more euphemisms than men; that they talk than

men or, conversely, that they talk less than men; that they are inclined to gossip;

that they are more conservative in their speech and, at the same time, more

sensitive to matters of correctness; that their speech is more polite; and so on.

These may be described as folk-linguistic beliefs – widely held, grounded in

anecdote and cursory observation, but not necessarily supported by systematic

research.

It is only in the last decade or so – and primarily due to the impact of the

women’s movement – that these claims have been subjected to close scrutiny.

Until then most socio-linguistic research was carried out by men, who tended to

focus upon male speakers – especially when studying marginal or subordinate

groups. Male linguistic behaviour was often assumed implicitly to be the norm;

and when the linguistic behaviour of women was noted this was often treated as a

36

departure from a norm centred on male behaviour. In some ways, then, until

women researchers began to reshape the field of study and to pay more attention

to the speech of women, socio-linguistics was prone to confirm gender stereotypes

rather than to question them.

Gender is now generally recognized as a salient dimension of social

difference, and has become the focus for a great deal of recent discussion within

socio-linguistics as a result of the burgeoning of feminist scholarship. In the light

of the accumulating evidence, it has become easier to distinguish between fact and

stereotype.

Do women tend to speak ‘more correctly’ than men?

A wide range of studies has shown that on social class measurements of

pronunciation, women generally score higher for prestige forms than men do right

up and down the social scale. But the detailed picture turns out to be much more

complicated. For example, a study by Milroy (1980) of two working-class

communities in Belfast in Northern Ireland highlights the importance of other

factors besides gender. In the particular communities she studied, it was clear that

changes in vernacular speech were the result not so much of gender as of

conditions of employment and unemployment, in particular, whether men and

women were employed locally or had to go outside their own community and

locality to find work.

In her analysis she made use of the concept of the social network. This

allows comparisons to be made between groups based on the density or looseness

of group ties. An open network is one in which the number of reciprocal ties in

the network is low: not everyone knows everyone else. A closed network is one in

which each member of the network has several ties with other members of the

network.

In addition to the numbers of ties within a network it is also possible to

take account of the nature of the ties that obtain between members and whether

these are ties of work, kinship, friendship, recreation and so on. A closed network,

for instance, may be of two types – uniplex or multiplex – so that in the latter the

ties are not only many and reciprocal, but also of multiple types. The workplace,

for example, may give rise to closed networks but these will not necessarily be of

37

the multiplex type, unless members of the networks are also connected by other

ties – for instance, those of kinship and shared recreational pursuits.

Generally, therefore, the claim that women as such are more sensitive to

norms of correct speech than men is not borne out by precise studies of actual

groups of women. It depends upon which women are being considered (older

versus younger, for instance) and, most fundamentally, upon what kinds of

relationships shape their everyday lives. Certainly, there is no simple, direct link

between sex of the speaker and tendency to use the vernacular or the standard.

Instead, adoption of, and allegiance to, vernacular norms of speech seems to be

associated broadly with membership of high density, multiplex networks with

strong roots in a territorially bounded, local community: membership of such

groups goes hand in hand with use of the vernacular. While networks of this type

tend to be more characteristic of traditional male working-class culture, they are

not an exclusively male phenomenon. Where women belong to such close-knit

social networks they exhibit similar degrees of vernacular loyalty.

Is women’s speech more polite, less direct and less assertive than that of

men?

This question goes to the heart of the way we use words to make our social

relationships. In order to answer it we have to focus upon quite specific and

discrete ways of doing things with words, such as using them to command or

question or interrupt. When talk between men and women is examined in these

terms, we do find evidence to support the view that female speakers are more

polite than males but care needs to be taken over how we interpret such findings.

It is important always to take the context of situation into account and to consider

whether it involves talk to the same or the other sex, or more generally whether it

involves relationships of power or solidarity. An utterance may sound polite and

unassertive in one context but not in another. For instance, if one pupil says to

another in the course of planning an issue of the school newspaper, ‘Let’s ask the

head what she thinks, shall we?’, it carries potentially quite different politeness

values than if a pupil were to address the same words to a class teacher in the

course of an altercation.

38

The use of questions

Many studies of male and female speech have found women using more

questions than men especially when the addressee is a man. For instance, women

were found to ask more questions than men when buying tickets at Central Station

in Amsterdam, especially when the ticket seller was male (Browser et al 1979).

And in a detailed study of three separate heterosexual couples based on fifty-two

hours of tape-recorded conversation in their homes, Fishman (1983) found that the

women asked a staggering two and a half times more questions than men did.

Fishman sees this as a practical measure of the work these women were doing to

keep conversation going. Women made sixty-two per cent of all attempts to

introduce topics but only thirty-eight per cent of these attempts achieved joint

development. Conversely, nearly all the topics initiated by men (usually in the

form of a statement) were taken up in the conversation. Thus, on the one hand,

women responded more positively to topics raised by men; and on the other hand

they had to work harder to establish topics themselves, which required them to use

more questions.

This kind of finding seems fairly clear cut and can be used to support

claims that women are more attentive in their talk to the needs and rights of

others. However, Fishman makes no attempt to differentiate between various

different types of question: her conclusions would have been more persuasive if

she had discussed in more detail whether different types of question might not

have been at work in her data and what criteria might be used to identify them.

For questions are not all of the same kind, nor do they all perform the same

function in conversation: not all of them necessarily work to support and sustain

topical development. A questioner, for instance, may claim, confirm, or even

challenge a power relation by their use. Tag questions, for example, may be either

facilitative and oriented towards the addressee, i.e. their function is to help the

conversation along by offering a speaking turn to another participant, for example:

‘That was a good film, wasn’t it?’

or checking and therefore speaker-oriented (i.e. making sure about

something), for example:

‘You came to Glasgow last year, didn’t you?’

39

Their meaning can also differ according to context. For example, in

asymmetrical, status-marked settings, such as the classroom or, for example, the

courtroom, tags similar in formal construction to those of the facilitative type

seem to take a different force. They quite typically operate to coerce agreement

from the addressee in some negative assessment of their behaviour. Consider, for

instance:

‘This homework isn’t very good, is it?’ (teacher to pupil)

‘You’re not making much of an effort to pay off these arrears, are you?’

(magistrate to defendant)

Thus, the same construction as that adopted for facilitative tags can well

become coercive, even accusatory, in particular circumstances.

Turn-taking, overlaps and interruptions

Giving commands and asking questions are all examples of conversational

acts – ways of doing things with words that are crucial to the conduct of social

life. Examining the distribution of conversational acts – who uses which kind of

cat, when and to whom – can reveal much about the character of social

relationships, including the expression of gender relations, at any particular point

in society. Conversation as a process, however, depends not only upon these acts

themselves but also upon a more general underlying mechanism of exchange

called the turn-taking system, which provides the framework within which these

acts can be performed.

At its most basic level, the turn-taking system enables conversations to

proceed without everyone talking all at once. Our tacit adherence as

conversationalists to the rules of the turn-taking system is displayed in the way

that normally the turns at talk succeed one another smoothly – without overlap on

the one hand, or more than minimal gaps on the other. Sacks at al (1974) argue

that conversationalists manage the exchange of talk with such fluency by listening

out for points in each turn where transition to other speaker has become relevant

because the turn is (potentially) complete. These transition relevance points are

signalled principally by grammatical completeness but other supporting cues are

provided by changes in the pace and pitch of the speech as well as by gesture and

eye movement. The more the cues coincide, the more likely it is that the turn is

40

complete. By relying on cues such as these (and some evidence suggests that

infants of only a couple of months have learnt to attend to them, long before they

can express themselves in words), conversationalists manage the exchange from

one turn to another often with gaps of only a fraction of a second.

Nonetheless, despite the availability of the turn-transition cues, departures

from such smooth turn-transitions do occur under certain circumstances,

particularly in asymmetrical relationships involving dominant and subordinate

parties. The departures from normal fluency are of two main types: a)

interruptions; b) delayed responses to a turn. Both types of departure from normal

turn-taking were examined by West and Zimmerman in two studies (1975 and

1983) of cross-sex talk. Interruptions were carefully distinguished from mere

overlaps: in the latter case the beginning of one turn momentarily coincides with

the end of another and is a common rather than a disruptive feature of fluent talk.

Interruptions, however, constitute a deeper incursion into a speaker’s ongoing

turn, penetrating well within the grammatical boundaries of a current speaker’s

utterance.

The results of these studies indicate that in conversations between mixed-

sex pairs, men interrupt very much more than women, and offer less support to

topics introduced by women. It is not difficult, therefore, to derive from their

work some support for the claim that women are less assertive and more polite

than men in cross-sex communication. Note, however, that this formulation takes

male behaviour as its taken-for-granted reference point. An alternative

formulation of this point would be that men are more assertive and impolite than

women when engaged in cross-sex conversation. After all, given the basic

constraints of the turn-taking system, it is not women but men who seem to

override them.

Conclusions: difference and dominance

What emerges from any review of work on speech differences between

women and men is a complicated sense of variation affected by a range of factors.

Two points in particular – one sociological and one linguistic – should be noted.

Firstly, speech differences between men and women are not clear cut. The sex

differences which stem from anatomy or physiology are filtered through the social

41

construction of gender identity and gender relations. So we need to recognize that,

as a social construct, gender is constructed differently in different societies,

epochs, and cultures. For this reason, we should not expect some set of universal

differences in the language of men and women. Instead, we need to consider

carefully the ways in which gender as a dimension of difference between people

interacts with other dimensions such as those of age, class, ethnic group, and so

on.

Secondly, from a linguistic perspective, we need to be very clear about

what exactly is being identified as a difference between men and women.

Generalized claims about assertiveness or politeness are difficult to substantiate

unless they are translated into more specific statements involving identifiable

linguistic behaviour – hence the focus on activities such as questions or

interruptions. Systematic study of differences depends upon the accurate

definition and identification of specific linguistic behaviour. And there is always

the additional complication that the form of an utterance is no consistent guide to

what function it might be performing in a specific context.

Despite these complications there seems to be growing evidence to suggest

that, in the words of Coates, women and men do pursue different interactive

styles: in mixed-sex conversations this means that men tend to interrupt women;

they use this strategy to control topics of conversation and their interruptions tend

to induce silence in women. Women make greater use of minimal responses to

indicate support for the speaker. It also seems that women ask more questions,

while men talk more, swear more and use imperative forms to get things done.

Women use more linguistic forms associated with politeness.

Underlying this felt sense of difference, and the growing body of evidence

to support it, is a recurrent concern with power. Studies of language and gender

have returned repeatedly to the question of how the language used by men and

women reinforces their respective positions in society. Women are maintained in

a subordinate position, it has been argued, because they find themselves adopting

powerless patterns of speech; and, conversely, men maintain their dominance by

the use of verbal strategies associated with power. For example, the propensity of

men to interrupt women more than women interrupt men may be seen in these

terms.

42

However, an equally important theme that has emerged more recently is

the focus on differences between men’s and women’s speech as the outcome fo

what are in effect two different sub-cultures with contrasting orientations towards

relationships. In effect, women and men, it is claimed, grow up within different

social worlds, as a result of which women are inclined to see relationships in

terms of intimacy, connection and disclosure whereas men are inclined to see

them in terms of hierarchy, status and independence. These sub-cultural

differences are enacted in contrasting communicative styles. Coates (1988) in a

study of an all-female group of speakers notes particular tendencies which she

feels are characteristic of women’s style of speech with each other; and include

gradual topic development, frequent – and well-placed – minimal responses,

supportive overlaps between one speaker and another, and many markers of

sympathetic circularity such as ‘I mean’, ‘sort of’, ‘kind of’. The combination of

such features amounts to a distinctive style of co-operative talk in which the joint

working out of a group point of view takes precedence over individual assertions.

This communicative style is not only characteristic to women in interaction with

each other but – Coates believes – is in implicit contrast with men’s

communicative style which is likely to be more adversarial and competitive.

If the contrastive sub-cultures of men and women give rise to contrasting

communicative styles, then these very differences provide ample grounds for

misunderstanding between men and women.

The American linguist, Deborah Tannen, argues that men and women end

up talking at cross purposes (You Just Don’t Understand, 1992). Women, she

believes, tend to speak and hear a language of connection and intimacy, whereas

men speak and hear a language of status and independence. For example, men

find that seeking advice (especially from men) is potentially demeaning; women

may be less inhibited about doing so. Women, she suggests, talk about troubles to

share them; men talk about troubles to solve them.

Tannen’s work sidesteps the problem of how to interpret specific linguistic

features, such as tag questions, by addressing directly the issue of function and

purpose in interaction, irrespective of the features through which such functions

are realized. But whilst gender differences in the functions of language in

interaction offer perhaps the richest area of investigation to date, it is not easy to

provide systematic evidence concerning their relative occurrence. For one thing,

43

talk of this type tends by definition to be private and not easily available for the

public scrutiny of research projects based upon tape recordings and transcripts.

For another thing, even when such recording techniques are used, the actual

incidence of events of this type is relatively small; communicatively, of course,

they may be of great significance but accumulating statistical evidence about them

is difficult. For this reason, Tannen relies for much of her evidence on her own

and others’ remembered experiences, which she renders in the form of short

scenarios, sketches and anecdotes. In many ways she is like an anthropologist –

though one doing work on her own rather than someone else’s culture. In fact,

many readers – men as well as women – find her account compelling since it

seems to match their own experience while casting it in a new light. But this

should not blind us to the possibilities of discrepancies between what we think we

do as social beings and what we actually do. There is no easy way round this

problem; but the least that can be said is that Tannen has provided a powerful set

of hypotheses about what is going on when men and women are talking – ones

which will prompt and guide important further work.

At the same time we have to recognize that Tannen’s account quite

deliberately sidelines questions of relationships of power between the sexes in

order to focus upon the cross-cultural component of misunderstandings. Here is a

study of differences rather than of dominance: misunderstandings arise, she

argues, because of the different (even if overlapping) sub-cultures inhabited by

men and women. Two kinds of problems may be identified with this broad

approach. Firstly, the scale of cultural differences identified is ultimately rather

narrow. For the sake of clarity of exposition, Tannen assumes for the most part

one common culture for women, and another for men – at least in the United

States. And so we are faced with essentially two sub-cultures, neither of which is

differentiated internally, by reference – for example – to ethnicity or class. To

what extent, we might ask, do working-class women of Asian origin from

Bradford, England, for instance, occupy the same sub-culture as women from the

affluent suburbs of Georgetown, USA?

Secondly, the picture that emerges from Tannen’s examples is of a

somewhat idealized world in which the best intentions of men and women to

understand each other are frustrated because of the cultural mismatch between

them. Although this is a positive – even a therapeutic – approach, since it suggests

44

that greater awareness on both sides can overcome these misunderstandings, it

nonetheless leaves out of the account ways in which miscommunication arises

because of, and is fuelled by, real conflicts of interests based upon asymmetries of

power. Is it possible, one might ask, that men sometimes miss the point of what is

said to them, because in order to find it they’d have to understand the utterance

from the position of a subordinate in a relation of power? One of the most

important consequences of the work on language and gender is that even in those

areas of investigation where the evidence remains inconclusive about the exact

nature of the differences, there is still enough to make it possible to pose questions

of this type on an everyday basis and in an analytically informed way.

Reading comprehension

1. What is the difference between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’?

2. What are the stereotypes of women’s speech? Do you agree with

all/some/none of them? Which do you disagree with, and why?

3. What reason does Fishman suggest for her finding that the women in

her couples asked more questions than the men?

4. Why is it important to examine the pragmatic functions of linguistic

forms such as tag questions?

5. What is the difference between an interruption and an overlap?

6. Do you agree with the view that men reinforce their social dominance

by using dominating strategies in conversation with women?

7. What is the argument of the sub-culture theorists? Are you convinced

by it, or do you see difficulties in it?

Vocabulary practice

I. Choose the most suitable word for each space.

Interpreting the feelings of other people is not always easy, as we all

know, and we (1) ……… as much on what they seem to be telling us, as on the

(2) ……… words they say. Facial (3) ……… and tone of voice are obvious ways

45

of showing our (4) ……… to something, and it may well be that we (5) ………

express views that we are trying to hide. The art of being (6) ……… lies in

picking up these signals, realising what the other person is trying to say, and

acting so that they are not embarrassed in any way. For example, we may

understand that they are in fact (7) ……… to answer our question, and so we stop

pressing them. Body movements in general may also (8) ……… feelings, and

interviewers often (9) ……… particular attention to the way a candidate for a job

walks into the room and sits down. However, it is not difficult to present the right

kind of (10) ……… , while what many employers want to know relates to the

candidate’s character traits, and (11) ……… stability. This raises the awkward

question of whether job candidates should be asked to complete psychological

tests, and the further problem of whether such tests actually produce (12) ………

results. For many people, being asked to take part in such a test would be an

objectionable (13) ………. into their private lives. After all, a prospective

employer would hardly ask a candidate to run a hundred metres, or expect his or

her family doctor to provide (14) ……… medical information. Quite apart from

this problem, can such tests predict whether a person is likely to be a (15) ………

employee or a valued colleague?

1. a) estimate b) rely c) reckon d) trust

2. a) other b) real c) identical d) actual

3. a) looks b) expression c) image d) manner

4. a) view b) feeling c) notion d) reaction

5. a) unconsciously b) rarely c) unaware d) cannot

6. a) good at b) humble c) tactful d) successful

7. a) reluctant b) used c) tending d) hesitant

8. a) have b) indicate c) contain d) infer

9. a) set b) gain c) in d) pay

10. a) appearance b) candidate c) manners d) introduction

11. a) similar b) physical c) psychological d) relevant

12. a) faithful b) regular c) reliable d) predictable

13. a) invasion b) intrusion c) infringement d) interference

14. a) classified b) secretive c) reticent d) confidential

15. a) thorough b) particular c) laborious d) conscientious

46

II. Choose the most suitable word or phrase.

1. I’m sorry that I giggled so much. I was in rather a silly ……….

a) temper b) mood c) feeling d) outlook

2. When our teacher saw what we had done he was absolutely ……….

a) angry b) upset c) furious d) annoyed

3. In a/an ……… moment, I decided to climb the cliff on my own.

a) rash b) impulsive c) sudden d) risky

4. Stop looking at yourself in the mirror! You’re so ………!

a) conceited b) self-centred c) vain d) proud

5. Jean has been the subject of much ……… gossip in the village.

a) evil b) vicious c) abusive d) malicious

6. Tom is quite a/an ……… character and easy to understand.

a) frank b) straightforward c) candied d) understanding

7. I am a/an ………. reader of science fiction novels.

a) avid b) ardent c) zealous d) fervent

8. Do stop banging that drum, Billy. You’re being rather ……….

a) nuisance b) wearying c) disturbing d) tiresome

9. The film didn’t really ……… our expectations, unfortunately.

a) meet with b) fall short of c) put in for d) come up to

47

UNIT 4

SOCIETY

THE UPPER CLASS

There are different ways of being unemployed, some more pleasant than

others. Rupert Deen is 40, and has never done very much to earn his living. He

says his father before him didn’t do much either, except a bit of travelling. It was

his grandfather who made a fortune out of Royal Dutch Oil.

I was put in touch with Rupert Deen by Richard Compton Miller, the

London gossip writer. I asked him if he could point me in the general direction of

some people who didn’t work for a living. He gave me quite a long list of names.

But the only one who actually proved accessible was Rupert Deen, who was

tremendously welcoming and said of course I could come and interview him

about his way of life.

He lives a luxurious bachelor life. He has never been married; and says he

has no intention of marrying. I was rather disappointed that he doesn’t have a

gentleman’s gentleman. ‘I have Margaret from Kilburn to wash and clean for me,’

he said. ‘Of course if I wanted a gentleman’s gentleman I’d have one. I’ve always

had everything I wanted, all my life. My childhood was a bit Spartan as you

couldn’t get things in the war, but otherwise I haven’t denied myself much.’ I had

to ask how rich he was. Was he a millionaire, for instance? ‘It’s frightfully sordid

to talk about money,’ he said firmly.

He lives in a small Knightsbridge bijou house, elegantly decorated with

pictures of horses and hunting prints. He ushered me into his drawing room where

his beautiful blonde girl friend, Amanda, and two Yorkshire farmers were

drinking beer. In the course of the interview they added their comments and

expostulations, as a kind of chorus. Amanda was given to comments like ‘Oh

Bear, really!’ and ‘Oh Bear, honestly!’. Rupert Deen is known to his friends as

Bear.

He started by describing for me a more or less typical day in his London

life. ‘Well, I get up at 9.30. I go out and buy the newspapers. I get the Mail, the

Express, the Sporting Life, and the Financial Times. Over breakfast I read the

48

Mail from cover to cover. I skim through the Daily Express, and then I look at the

Financial Times. Next I have a bath and I read the Sporting Life. Between 11.00

and 12.00, as I complete my levee, I telephone my friends. I might do a bit of

business phoning too, about horses or insurance.’

Rupert Deen is a Lloyds underwriter – not exactly a strenuous career, an

occupation closer to gambling on a large scale than to work. I asked how often he

went into the office. ‘About two days a year,’ Amanda giggled. Rupert Deen said

one or two days a week, when he was in town.

He sets off to lunch at 12.30. ‘About twice a week it’s business of some

sort. The rest of the time it’s lunch with friends. I usually go to Drones, Mimmo’s,

The Connaught, or the Savoy. Of course I go to the races about one day a week if

it’s not raining, so I wouldn’t be eating in restaurants on that day; I’m in the city

one day.’ ‘I say,’ he added, ‘I hope you’re commenting on my good looks,

intelligence, and brilliant wit, what!’

He continued with the description of his day. ‘Well, then, exhausted by my

tiring afternoon I’ll have a bit of a rest, and get ready to go out to a dinner party or

to the theatre, or films. Nothing too intellectual.’ He wouldn’t say who his friends

were, and whose dinner parties he went to. ‘One can’t mention other people to the

press,’ he said with surprising prissiness.

He was educated at Harrow. When he left there he went to the Ecole de

Commerce at Neuchatel in Switzerland. Was that a university, I asked? ‘Well,

kind of. I got a degree,’ he said. ‘They gave you a degree if you turned up for 22

days out of 100. I was there for a year.’ Did it teach him anything useful? He

raised his thick eyebrows in a knowing look and said, ‘Not exactly academically,

if you know what I mean. But you certainly built up quite a knowledge of the

world.’

He then went straight into Lloyds and stayed for eight years at something

that was a more or less full-time job. ‘I just stood in queues and did what I was

told,’ he said. ‘So I retired after eight years, I prefer retirement.’

His year, he says, goes something like this: in May he goes to the South of

France, to Monte Carlo or St. Tropez. He comes back to England for Ascot in

mid-June, and then Wimbledon. (Tickets, he says, are no problem.) In July he

goes racing at Newmarket and York, and often attends the Open Golf

Championship. In August he goes to the second Test match, and shoots grouse

49

every day. In September he takes a house in St. Tropez. He comes back from

France, stopping in Paris for the Arc de Triomphe on the first Sunday in October.

‘Then I take a leisurely drive through Normandy, stopping to take in one or two

studs on the way,’ he says. ‘I’m back in time to shoot one or two pheasants.

Where? Oh, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Scotland, everywhere.’

What about November? ‘Oh well, November. That’s my birthday.

November 14, same day as Prince Charles.’ Does he know Prince Charles? ‘My

lips are sealed. I said I wouldn’t mention any names in this interview.’

December he shoots, for even more days of the week, what he calls

‘Heavy shooting’. The rest of the year he likes to travel to exotic countries. ‘I’ve

been to Japan, Pakistan, Egypt. No, I don’t mind the discomfort of sleeping out of

doors, so long as one has plenty of servants. I go to South Africa occasionally. I

thoroughly approve of apartheid. It works. We ought to have it here.’ He approves

of Mrs. Thatcher. ‘Her policies, I mean. I don’t approve of her. I don’t like a

woman prime minister as I don’t think women should have the vote, nor most

men, for that matter. I think the vote should be given just to a few men, those who

are well educated and who contribute to society, those who employ people,

directly or indirectly.’ He said he definitely included himself.

I asked if he thought his way of life at all anachronistic? ‘Ana what? Come

again? Not so much of the brainy talk.’ I explained. ‘I don’t agree with the

modern idea that you should work for the sake of it. Basically, I’m a hedonist. I

am extremely busy, you see, it’s just that my energies go in a different direction to

most people’s.’ Did he ever feel that life should have some purpose? ‘No,’ he

said.

JOBS AND EMPLOYMENT POLICIES

People of working age can be divided into three groups: the employed, the

self-employed, and the unemployed. At the end of the 1980s, Britain’s total work-

force was about 26 million, about two thirds of the adult population. Of this

number, around 3 million people were self-employed, and there were about 2

50

million unemployed. About 40 per cent of the work-force are women, a

proportion that is gradually growing.

As in many countries, there has been a gradual swing from employment in

the manufacturing industries to jobs in service industries such as banking,

retailing, hotels, and public administration. About two thirds of the work-force are

employed in service industries, compared with one quarter in manufacturing

industry. During the 1980s, the largest rise was in the banking, insurance and

finance sector, which increased by 50 per cent. The number of workers in

transport, however, has declined.

During the 1980s there were years of high unemployment, with a peak of

over 3 million unemployed in 1986. A number of government schemes,

programmes and incentives were introduced to help unemployed people find

work. These range from the Youth Training Scheme (YTS), giving young people

the opportunity to obtain a vocational qualification while under training, to

Employment Training (ET), an extensive adult training programme introduced in

1988 for people who had been out of work for more than six months.

Many unemployed people look for work in advertisements, such as those

in local newspapers. Others make their first search through the government

Jobcentres, where local jobs are advertised and where individual advice is given.

Instruction in practical skills is provided for the unemployed at

Skillcentres. These were at first run by the Department of Employment but are

now privately managed. Training of a more theoretical kind can also be obtained

through the Open College, an independent body that provides courses by radio

and television. Two further schemes are Business Growth Training, which offers

financial help to employers training their own employees, and the Enterprise

Allowance Scheme, which helps the unemployed people start their own business.

Although many school-leavers obtain jobs after completing a one-year or

two-year YTS course, some find the experience depressing and regard it as a

waste of time.

If a person is unemployed for six months or longer, he or she may attend

an interview with a ‘Restart’ counsellor, who will suggest alternative ways of

finding work. One solution is for the person to attend a special five-day Restart

course, with practical advice on the way to look for a job. Another is a place in a

Jobclub, where the person is given similar advice followed by help in finding a

51

job. A third possibility is self-employment under the Enterprise Allowance

Scheme. People who remain unemployed for a year or more are recommended to

see a Restart counsellor every six months.

Similar schemes operate in the USA where, as in Britain, an increasing

number of workers are employed in service industries and where unemployment

in 1990 was about 5 per cent. The Federal-State Employment Service refers

employable applicants to job openings where they can make the best use of their

skills. It also helps unemployed people to obtain advice or training.

The Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), which came into force in 1963,

provides job training and employment services for poor and disadvantaged

people, with the aim of finding permanent jobs for as many people as possible. A

special section of the Act caters for people who lose jobs in industries where they

are unlikely to find another job. Young unemployed people are given training by

Job Corps residential training centres. In addition to these schemes, which are

organized on a federal basis, individual states also provide employment training

which is paid for from state taxes.

SOCIAL SECURITY

In Britain, ‘social security’ is the term used for all the payments (called

‘benefits’) made by the government to the retired, sick, disabled and unemployed,

as well as to widows, parents and people on very low incomes.

Social security benefits are of two kinds: contributory and non-

contributory. Contributory benefits are paid from the National Insurance

contributions made regularly by employees, employers and the self-employed.

Non-contributory benefits are financed by income from general taxation. The

whole system is the responsibility of the Department of Social Security (DSS).

National Insurance contributions, like income tax, are normally deducted from an

employee’s pay by the employer.

The benefits paid to the different categories of people are known by

different names. The benefit paid to retired people is the ‘state pension’ or

52

‘retirement pension’, to which women are entitled at the age of 60 and men at 65.

Pensioners are able to earn income and still receive their pension in full. In

addition to the basic pension, many people receive an earnings-related pension

based on their pay during their working life.

Employers can ‘contract out’ their employees from the state pension

scheme for an earnings-related pension and provide their own pension instead.

About half the people at work in Britain are now contracted out in this way. The

Social Security Act of 1986 also gave people the right to choose their own

pension scheme rather than stay in the state earnings-related scheme or their

employer’s scheme.

Women who leave work to have a baby receive ‘maternity pay’ from their

employer. Women who do not qualify for this, for example the self-employed,

receive a ‘maternity allowance’ from the government.

A woman whose husband dies before he retires receives a ‘widow

pension’ if she is aged 45 or over. If she has children, she receives a ‘widowed

mother’s pension’.

There are many different benefits for sick and disabled people, depending

on the nature and severity of the illness or disablement. ‘Statutory sick pay’ (SSP)

is paid by an employer for the first 28 weeks of an employee’s illness and is

related to earnings. Employees who are not entitled to SSP, for example the self-

employed, receive the more general ‘sickness benefit’. If a person is still unable to

work at the end of this period, he or she receives an ‘invalidity pension’. Disabled

people who find walking difficult or impossible may receive a tax-free ‘mobility

allowance’ to help pay for their transport or to obtain a special vehicle.

‘Child benefit’ is the main social security payment for children, paid tax-

free and usually to the mother. It is payable for each child until he or she leaves

school (at 16) or longer if the child continues in education (up to the age of 19).

‘Unemployment benefit’ is payable to a person who is out of work for up

to a year in one single spell of unemployment. ‘Income support’ is paid to people

who are unemployed for more than a year or work for less than 24 hours a week,

and who have very little money to live on. The amount paid depends on the

money a person already has. ‘Housing benefit’ is paid to people with low incomes

to help them pay for the cost of accommodation. ‘Family credit’ is paid to

53

families with children who have very low incomes. It is paid in addition to child

benefit.

Various modifications of these benefits, and additional amounts, are

available for special categories of people, for example single parents or war

widows (women whose husbands have been killed fighting in a war). There are

usually different rates of payment for single people and couples, and a couple will

not receive twice the amount that a single person gets.

All benefits are taxable except child benefit. This means that unemployed

people are taxed on their benefit, as are pensioners.

In the USA, social security is limited mainly to the provision of pensions

and Medicare for the retired and elderly. When an employed person reaches the

age of 62, he or she is entitled to a reduced old age pension, and at the age of 65 to

a full pension. (The higher pension age is being gradually increased to 67 over a

21-year period, beginning with people aged 62 in the year 2000.) Medicare is the

scheme which pays most or all of the fees for hospital or medical treatment for a

person of pension age. It is thus roughly equivalent in this respect to the National

Health Service (NHS) in Britain, although the NHS provides free treatment for

people under pension age as well. Some US states also have a ‘state disability

insurance’ scheme providing benefit for an employee who cannot work because of

illness for seven or more days. Both social security contributions and state

disability contributions, where they apply, are compulsory. As in Britain, social

security contributions are usually deducted by the employer.

Reading comprehension

A valuable job?

Which of the following jobs is the most important in your opinion? Put

them in order.

Doctor Secretary Teacher

Policeman Farmworker Pop singer

Reporter Politician Miner

Soldier Dentist Minister (priest)

Which of them do you think earns most?

54

Which of them do you think should earn most? Why?

Which of them would you like to do? Which wouldn’t you like to do?

Why?

Are there any very important jobs which are very badly paid?

Suitability of a job

Do you think that some jobs require people with special characteristics? If

so, can you give examples?

Are there some jobs which you think you would be unsuitable for? If so,

why?

What sort of job do you think you are suitable for with your personal

characteristics?

What is a good job?

What do you consider to be the most important aspects of a good job? Put

these in order of importance:

Being your own boss Good pay

Job security Interesting work

Power Opportunity to help people

Seeing the results of your work Flexible hours

Vocabulary practice

I. Choose the most suitable word given for each space in the text.

Have you ever asked yourself what are you working for? If you have ever

had the time to (1) ……… this taboo question, or put it to others in moments of

weakness or confidentiality, you (2) ……… well have heard some or all of the (3)

……….It’s the money of course, some say with a smile, as if explaining

something to a small child. Or it’s the satisfaction of (4) ……… well done, the

sense of achievement behind the clinching of an important (5) ……….I worked as

a bus conductor once, and I can’t say I (6) ……… the same as I staggered along

the swaying gangway trying to (7) ……… out tickets without falling over into

someone’s lap. It’s the company of other people perhaps, but if that is the (8)

55

……… , what about farmers? Is it the conversation in the farmyard that keeps

them captivated by the job? Work is power and a sense of status say those (9)

……… have either attained these elusive goals, or feel aggrieved that nobody has

yet recognised their leadership (10) ……… . Or we can blame it all on someone

else, the family or the taxman. I suspect, and I say this under my (11) ……… ,

that most of us work rather as Mr Micawber lived, hoping for something to (12)

……… up. We’ll win the pools, and tell the boss what we really think. We’ll

scrape together the (13) ……… and open that little shop we always dreamed of,

or go (14) ……… the world, or spend more time in the garden. One day we’ll get

that (15) ……… we deserve, but until then at least we have something to do. And

we are so busy doing it that we don’t have time to wonder why.

1. a) propose b) meditate c) consider d) launch

2. a) might b) can c) will d) should

3. a) below b) rest c) following d) latter

4. a) a work b) a job c) a task d) an effort

5. a) deal b) position c) job d) engagement

6. a) enjoyed b) wished c) hoped d) felt

7. a) make b) turn c) issue d) give

8. a) one b) case c) question d) former

9. a) people b) must c) who d) to

10. a) qualities b) status c) property d) requirements

11. a) oath b) suspicion c) breath d) pressure

12. a) move b) turn c) ease d) end

13. a) resources b) opportunities c) rest d) money

14. a) round b) over c) into d) to

15. a) ambition b) station c) vocation d) promotion

II. Choose the most appropriate word or words underlined.

1. The bookmaker was discussing the binding/odds/printing with a client.

2. Jim is a real craftsman and works on a boat/with his hands/for a low

salary.

3. I had to call a plumber because my room was blacked

out/flooded/cracked.

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4. If you are selling your house, you’ll need an advocate/barrister/solicitor.

5. Peter is an undertaker and goes to funerals/the stock exchange/the

factory.

6. If you are an accountant you have to be good at figures/numbers/totals.

7. Sue is a lecturer at the local institute/secondary school/university.

8. We were married by my uncle, who was the local father/official/vicar.

9. If you’re passing the vet’s, could you collect my carpet/cat/licence?

10. Helen doesn’t work for a company, she’s

freelance/liberated/unattached.

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UNIT 5

LAW

LAW AND ORDER

The main sources of British law are common law, legislation and, more

recently, European Community law. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their

own legal system and law courts, distinct from those in England and Wales.

Common law is the ancient ‘law of the land’ that has been passed down by

precedent and custom. It is unwritten. Judgements are based on judgements made

in previous cases and this forms the basis of all law that is not specifically

legislation. Legislation consists of Acts passed by the Parliament and there are

also by-laws made by local authorities. European Community law is mainly

concerned with economic and social affairs. In some circumstances it can reverse

judgements made in the British courts.

A distinctive ancient British law is that of habeas corpus. This Latin

phrase literally means ‘you must have the body’, and is the opening words of a

17th century writ guaranteeing a person a fair trial. A person who believes that he

is wrongly held by the police can issue a writ of habeas corpus to have his

complaint heard by a court. This is also part of the US Constitution.

The decision to bring a person to court in the first place is usually made by

the police. If a criminal charge is made, the papers go to the Crown Prosecution

Service, which then decides whether to prosecute or not.

Criminal offences are prosecuted either in a magistrates’ court or at a

Crown Court. A magistrate, also called a Justice of the Peace (JP), is a member of

the public who is not legally qualified; normally these magistrates sit together as a

court. There are also some full-time legally qualified magistrates who normally sit

alone in town courts where the number of prosecutions is usually higher.

Magistrates’ courts deal with less important offences. More serious

offences are committed to a Crown Court, which also passes sentence on

criminals convicted by magistrates’ courts, and hears appeals from people tried in

those courts. It sits at various centres around the country and is presided over

either by a visiting High Court judge, a ‘circuit judge’ (a former barrister or

58

solicitor serving as a full-time judge on a ‘circuit’, one of six administrative

districts for legal purposes), or a recorder (a part-time judge). All Crown Court

trials are heard by a judge and a jury, or by a judge alone if the accused pleads

guilty. Circuit judges and recorders sit with magistrates in the Crown Court to

deal with appeals.

Non-criminal cases, i.e. civil disputes (for example, a claim for damages

as a result of a traffic accident or a dispute about custody of children) are usually

heard by a circuit judge in a county court without a jury. The judge normally sits

alone, but may very rarely in special cases order a trial by jury.

A trial in a criminal court is a contest between the prosecution, who put

the case and call the evidence against the defendant, and the defence. The

defendant normally has a lawyer to represent him and act as his legal adviser. An

accused person pleads ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’. It is a principle of English law that a

person is presumed to be innocent until proved guilty, and the Prosecution have to

satisfy the Court of the defendant’s guilt so that the Court is sure of it, otherwise

he must be found ‘not guilty’.

The jury, who make the eventual decision in the Crown Court as to

whether the defendant is actually ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’, is normally composed of

12 people chosen at random from the list of local people who have a right to vote

in the area. Their decision is called a verdict.

The lawyers who speak for the prosecution or the defence in magistrates’

courts and county courts are normally solicitors, while in the Crown Courts they

are barristers. In Scotland a barrister is known as an ‘advocate’. Barristers are so

called because they have been ‘called to the Bar’ by one of the Inns of Court.

Young people under 17 are tried in a special juvenile court, a kind of

magistrates’ court which is held separately from the other courts. Sudden or

suspicious deaths are investigated in a special coroner’s court.

The Crown Court can only hear criminal appeals from the magistrates’

courts in criminal cases; it cannot hear appeals from them in civil matters, such as

the adoption of a child. These go to the High Court of Justice, which itself is

divided into the Chancery Division, the Queen’s Bench Division and the Family

Division, where, for example, an appeal against an adoption or custody order

would be heard. Appeals from the High Court and the county courts go to the

Civil Division of the Court of Appeal, while appeals from the Crown Court go to

59

its Criminal Division. The Civil Division is presided over by the Master of the

Rolls, and the Criminal Division by the Lord Chief Justice.

Appeals in both civil and criminal cases may then go on to the final court

of appeal. This is the House of Lords, where the judges are the nine ‘Lords of

Appeal’. Five of them usually sit at one time. Solicitors have much wider duties

than merely speaking in court. They are qualified lawyers who not only appear in

court but draft legal documents, such as wills, and give advice on legal matters.

They are paid either by the client or by the state if the client’s low income

qualifies him for legal aid. Some solicitors also work in local government, or as

legal advisers to a company. One of their most frequent jobs is to supervise the

legal procedures involved in conveyances (the buying or selling of a house),

although this can now also be carried out through a building society or bank.

US law is based on English law and is represented by common law, statute

law and the US Constitution. There are two types of court, state and federal, with

each state having its own distinctive laws, courts and prisons. Federal law cases

are first heard before a federal district judge in a district court presided over by a

Chief Judge. Appeals are made to one of 13 Courts of Appeal or to the Supreme

Court, the highest in the country. The federal legal system has its own police

force, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Routine criminal and civil cases are heard in local, district and county

courts, with some states having a Supreme Court. Even small villages may have a

local judge, called a ‘justice of the peace’, who can deal with minor legal matters.

There are both federal and state judges, with the former, as well as the judges of

the Supreme Court, being appointed by the President with the advice and consent

of the Senate. The Supreme Court itself at present comprises the Chief Justice of

the United States and eight Associate Justices. Juries are used in civil cases as

well as in criminal trials.

60

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Crime in both Britain and the USA is a cause of constant and serious

concern, and increasing attention is being paid to methods of preventing it.

Over the past few years in Britain, there has been an increase in crimes of

violence against people, in sexual offences, and in criminal damage. At the same

time there has been a decrease in burglary and to a lesser extent in robbery, theft,

and the handling of stolen goods.

Even so, the majority of crime is directed against property, with car theft

accounting for a quarter of all crimes, and in Britain local crime prevention panels

operate in conjunction with the police to discuss ways of tackling this type of

crime. The setting up of ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ schemes has been a practical

move towards the prevention of break-ins and thefts from private houses, and in

1988 an independent crime prevention organization, Crime Concern, was

established to encourage further schemes of this type. The risk of burglary is ten

times higher in inner city areas than in rural areas.

In the USA, there has been a marked ride in violent crimes among young

people, with murder, rape and assault all on the increase. In both countries there

have been incidents of mass shootings, which have resulted in a review of the

regulations controlling the purchase of firearms. The import and sale of illegal

drugs, in particular heroine and cocaine, is a growing area of crime, and has led to

international cooperation between police forces in order to combat it.

The high level of crime in general has led to the coordination of efforts to

fight it. Local authorities, private businesses and voluntary groups have

collaborated with the police in some areas of Britain, notably in the inner cities.

In 1988 a Serious Fraud Office was set up in Britain to deal with

complicated cases of fraud, especially within companies.

When people are sent to prison in Britain after being found guilty of a

crime, they are given a sentence that specifies the length of their punishment.

Most, however, will normally be eligible for a remission of one third of the period

stipulated. This means that a person sentenced to a year’s imprisonment will

normally be released after eight months, and one sentenced to three years will

leave prison after two. Moreover, most prisoners sentenced to 12 months or more

61

are also eligible for parole when they have served one third of the stated period,

after a minimum of six moths in prison. At present about three prisoners out of

four obtain parole. However, prisoners sentenced to five or more years for serious

offences involving violence, arson or sexual crimes are rarely granted parole. A

person on parole is released from prison on condition that he or she remains in

touch with a probation officer over the period of time for which the original

sentence would have run. If parole conditions are abused, the offender is liable to

be recalled to prison.

Although a ‘life sentence’ for murder rarely means imprisonment for life,

it can last for 20 years or more if the crime was the murder of a police officer or

prison officer, if it was carried out during a terrorist attack or a robbery, or if it

involved the sexual or sadistic killing of a child. The government minister

responsible for law and order, the Home Secretary, decides when a prisoner

sentenced to life should be released. Such prisoners remain on parole for the rest

of their lives, and may be imprisoned again if it seems likely that they will commit

a further offence.

On the whole, many courts try to avoid passing prison sentences in the

first place, and instead impose some other punishment, such as a fine, or

probation, or a community service order. A court may impose a prison sentence

‘suspended’ for up to two years: the offender will not have to serve the sentence

unless he or she commits other offences during the period. Fines are awarded in

about eight cases out of ten. ‘Probation’ involves the offender leading a normal

life but under the supervision of a probation officer. Community service involves

doing unpaid physical work for between 40 and 240 hours, to be completed within

12 months.

Courts also have the power to allow a convicted person to go free, i.e. to

discharge him or her conditionally, especially if imprisonment or other

punishment seems inappropriate. If convicted for another offence of the same

kind, however, such a person will be brought back to court and will be liable for

the punishment that could have been imposed in the first place. For a trivial

offence, such as a single instance of drunk and disorderly behaviour, the court

may ‘bind over’ the offender, requiring him or her to ‘keep the peace’ and ‘be of

good behaviour’. If this condition is not observed, the person may be given a

62

punishment for the original offence, or have to pay a sum of money stipulated

when ‘bound over’.

There are separate prisons for men and women. Prisons can be ‘closed’ or

‘open’. Open prisons do not have physical barriers such as the locked and barred

windows of other prisons. The prisoners are trusted not to escape, and because

they are not locked up they can carry out useful work for longer periods than

prisoners in closed prisons. There are also special prisons for offenders needing

psychiatric treatment.

If a child or young person aged between 10 and 17 commits an offence, he

or she is similarly subject to different types of punishment. The sentencing court

may place the young person under a ‘care order’. In this case the child can remain

at home under supervision, or be placed with foster parents, or be sent to a

‘community home’ run by the local authority or by a voluntary body.

Alternatively, the child may be placed under a ‘supervision order’, when he or she

will continue to live at home but be supervised by a social worker or probation

officer.

Courts can fine young offenders, but payment is the responsibility of the

parents or guardians. A more serious punishment is to order the offender to spend

a period of leisure time at an ‘attendance centre’. The centre gives instruction in

physical training and practical subjects. The young person can be ordered to spend

up to three hours on a Saturday at such a centre, up to a total of 24 hours.

Older children may be sent to a young offender institution, the equivalent

of prison for an adult. Boys aged 14 can be sentenced for a period of three weeks

to four months, while those of 15 and 16 can be given up to twelve months. Girls

of 14 may not be sentenced like this, however, and girls of 15 and 16 can be

sentenced to a period of more than four months. Offenders of either sex aged 16

can also be ordered to carry out up to 120 hours of community service. No child

under 10 can be brought to court at all. Sentences for young people aged 17 to 20

are similar but may be for longer periods or on similar conditions as those for

adult sentences, for instance up to a maximum of 240 hours of community

service.

Prison populations have been growing in both Britain and the USA in

recent years, with the US prison population increasing by 90 per cent from 1980

to 1988. Many British prisons are seriously overcrowded and, because some date

63

from the 19th century, they have very poor facilities, especially sanitation.

Opportunities for exercise and for education and training are restricted in old and

overcrowded prisons, and partly as a result of this there have been some serious

riots in British prisons. A prison building programme is planned to improve

conditions and measures have also been taken to reduce the number of people sent

to prison, by using alternative punishments whenever possible. It is still the case,

however, that Britain sends a higher proportion of the population to prison than

many other European countries.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

CIVIL LAW AND PROCEDURE

The civil law is the branch of the law system that establishes some

patrimonial relations, in which the parts are subjects equal in rights, and some

non-patrimonial relations, connected with the person’s individuality. It also

establishes the juridical terms of the physical persons and of other collective

subjects in their quality as parts in the juridical civil relations. The civil law

contains all the juridical standards, having the roots in the code of Civil law.

The patrimonial relations deal with the real relations (the right of property

and other real rights) and with the law of contract (the law of credence). The non-

patrimonial relations contain: the relations regarding the existence and the

integrity of the subjects of the civil law (the right to life, to health, to reputation);

the relations regarding identification (the right to a name, to a residence); the

relations generated by the intellectual creation (the copyright).

The civil juridical relation is a social relation established by the norms of

civil law; it turns the parts into holders of rights and of legal obligations. The

premises of the arising of the civil juridical relations are: the existence of a

standard of the civil law, the existence of the parts (subjects of law) and the

existence of a juridical fact.

64

The elements of this relation are: the subjects (physical or juridical

persons), the contents (the subjective rights of the active subject), the object

(actions or abstentions of committing certain facts connected with the subjective

rights and with the parts’ obligations in the juridical relation).

The juridical facts: events and actions (licit or illicit); among the licit

actions, the juridical act has an important place.

The juridical act – is that licit action committed in order to create, to

assign, to modify or to cancel a juridical relation. The juridical acts have power of

law between the parts that concluded them.

The prescription:

a) the extinctive prescription – which has the effect of losing the

possibility of obtaining certain rights by coercion;

b) the acquisitive prescription – which has the effect of acquiring certain

rights on immovable property (landed property) by performing the possession

over that estate, during a period of time established by law.

The major real rights establish the right of property in its various forms

(private and public) and the dismemberments of the right of property (the usage,

the usufruct, the occupancy, the easement).

The civil obligations have the following sources: the contract, the

unilateral act of will, the illicit and injurious act, the enrichment without fair

ground.

The right over the intellectual creation: the right of the author and the right

of the inventor.

The successions (the succession bestowed by will) with two categories: the

legal successional devolution and the testamentary successional devolution.

The English system of civil procedure is based on the adversary principle:

a series of statements of facts are put forward by one party to be attacked by the

opposing party. The judge acts principally as umpire or referee and leaves it to the

parties to put the case before him. The rules of civil procedure which govern the

handling of cases are technical, complex and detailed. They are designed to

regulate the conduct of the parties and their advocates in an adversary trial. They

can be found in large volumes entitled The supreme Court Practice (known among

lawyers as ‘The White Book’) and The County Court Practice (known among

65

lawyers as ‘The Green Book’). This mass of rules really has three objectives. The

first objective is to ensure that the facts on which a claim is based are accurately

found and appropriately arranged so that the issues between the parties can be

identified. The second is to ensure that the correct and appropriate rule of law is

found and applied. The third objective is to ensure that the remedy or remedies

prescribed by that rule of law can adequately be enforced.

Whether the rules actually achieve their objectives remains to be assessed,

but there has been a succession of calls over the last 30 years for the redrafting of

the rules in order to make High Court practice and procedure quicker, simpler.

Few of their recommendations have been implemented. The recommendations of

the Civil Justice Review pick up some of these recommendations and their

implementation will mark the start of a new era in the processing of civil disputes.

CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

Understanding the English legal system must start with the distinction

between civil and criminal proceedings. Civil and criminal proceedings require

different courts and procedures, although some judges sit in both civil and

criminal courts. The distinction between civil and criminal proceedings consists

mainly in the legal consequences that follow a particular act.

The role of the civil law and civil proceedings is to determine the rights

and obligations of individuals themselves, as well as in their relations with the

others. Such civil acts could be: the determination of rights arising under a

contract, the rights regarding property and succession, the obligation of paying

damages for torts, like negligence, nuisance or defamation, questions of status,

such as divorce, adoption and the custody of children. These rights belong to the

area of private law, as they are of private nature; but there are also rights that

belong to the public law, like questions of taxation, or questions of planning and

compulsory purchase, which are of public nature.

In a civil proceeding, the person who begins the proceeding is the plaintiff

and he sues or brings an action against a defendant. The plaintiff will be seeking a

remedy, usually in the form of damages (money compensation), but possibly also

66

in the form of an injunction (an order prohibiting the defendant from committing

or continuing to commit a wrongful act). Most civil proceedings are heard by a

judge sitting alone; in defamation cases, which are very rare, the judge will be

helped by a jury in civil proceedings. The judge delivers a judgement after hearing

the action. The terminology is not the same in all the civil proceedings. For

instance, in divorce proceedings, the petitioner, who asks for the marriage to be

dissolved, partitions for a decree against the respondent. If it is certain that the

marriage has broken down irretrievably because of the respondent’s adultery, the

person with whom the respondent is alleged to have committed adultery must

usually join the proceedings. This party is called co-respondent.

In civil proceedings, the plaintiff usually must prove the facts on which the

claim is based. This means that the plaintiff has the burden of a proof, which in

the civil cases is said to be on the balance of probabilities. In other words, the

plaintiff must satisfy the judge through admissible evidence, which is more

reliable than his statements which he pretends to be true.

Criminal law and criminal proceedings are concerned with wrongs

regarded as committed by the individual against society for which guilty

individuals must be punished. In some circumstances, even companies can

commit criminal offences. As the objective of civil proceedings is to provide a

remedy for the person wronged, usually in the form of damages, the objective of

criminal proceedings is to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused person

and, if that person is found to be guilty, to punish the wrongdoer and to protect the

society.

Part of the purpose of the penalty is also seen as seeking to rehabilitate the

wrongdoer. In criminal proceedings a prosecutor, usually the police, institutes a

prosecution against the defendant or accused person (sometimes referred to as the

accused). The outcome is a determination of guilt or innocence (by verdict if trial

is by jury). A finding that the accused is not guilty is termed on acquittal. If the

offence is proved, the court imposes a sentence (usually a fine or a term of

imprisonment) or makes some other order (such as a probation or community

service order).

In criminal proceedings the prosecutor almost invariably has the burden of

proof, which is said to be beyond all the reasonable doubt. The prosecutor must

adduce admissible evidence to prove that there is no reasonable doubt that the

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defendant committed the offence charged. This involves satisfying the tribunal of

fact (magistrates or jury) that every essential element of the offence is proved and

that the acts of the defendant were done with the requisite intent. When certain

defences are raised, such as insanity, the defendant has the burden of proof on the

balance of probabilities. In other words, if insanity is raised as a defence, the

prosecutor does not have to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the defendant

was sane, but rather the defendant must prove that on the balance of probabilities

he or she is insane within the legal definition of that term.

The same set of facts may give rise to both civil and criminal proceedings.

The most common example is the motor accident where someone is injured

because of a driver’s bad driving. A civil action by the injured person often

follows as well as a prosecution for a driving offence. Another example of overlap

might occur in the case of persons who sell dishonesty goods, which are in their

possession for repair. Such action amounts to breach of contract (a civil wrong) or

theft (a crime).

When both civil and criminal cases go on appeal, the terminology again

changes. The party appealing is called the appellant and the other party who

responds to the appeal is called the respondent. Appeals serve a variety of

purposes and can be divided into those concerned with the merits of the decision

under appeal and those concerned with the legality of the process by which that

decision was reached. A litigant is entitled not only to a fair and proper decision

on the merits, but also a decision arrived at by due process of law.

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CODE OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE

(Fragments)

Part III

Administrative Acts

Chapter I

General Provisions Concerning Administrative Acts

Art. 58

Individual and Collective Administrative Acts

(1) For the purposes of this law administrative acts shall be those official

decisions by administrative bodies, which under the provisions of Public Law

regulate individual cases to create legal consequences (individual administrative

acts).

(2) Collective administrative acts shall be those acts

(a) addressed to a class of persons determined by

general characteristics;

(b) concerning public property and its use or

public institutions.

Art. 59

Form of Administrative Acts

Administrative acts must be put into practice in written form, provided no

other form is required by law or imposed by the nature and circumstances for

which the act is intended.

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Art. 61

Purpose and Content of Administrative Acts

(1) Administrative acts must state with precision their respective purpose,

so that their juridical effects may be determined without any doubt.

(2) Without prejudice to other information specifically required by the

circumstances of the case, every written administrative act must contain:

(a) the issuing authority as well as any delegation and sub-

delegation of power concerning the issuance of the act;

(b) adequate identification of the party or parties to whom the act is

addressed;

(c) a statement of the facts on the basis of which the act is issued, if

relevant;

(d) a statement of reasons including the content or meaning of the

decision, without prejudice to the provisions in paragraph 3 of

this article;

(e) the date on which the act is put into practice;

(f) the signature of the office holder [=civil servant] responsible

for the act.

(3) A statement of reasons shall not be required

(a) where the administrative body complies with the application or

declaration of the interested party and where the act does not

interfere with rights of a third party;

(b) where the addressee of or the third party affected by the act has

full knowledge of the opinion of the administrative body

concerning the facts and legal basis of the case;

(c) for the publication of a collective administrative act;

(d) if so ordered by law.

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Art. 63

Taking Effect of Administrative Acts. Retroactivity

(1) Any administrative act shall take effect from the date on which it is put

into practice, save for the cases where the law or the act itself shall provide for

retroactive or delayed effect.

(2) Administrative acts shall have retroactive effect:

(a) when interpreting an existing act or correcting an incorrect act

according to Article 70 of this Code;

(b) when executing a court decision which declared null and void

an administrative act;

(c) where the law provides for the retroactive effect of the act.

(3) Apart from the cases listed in the preceding paragraph, the

administrative body may order the retroactivity of the act:

(a) when retroactivity is favourable to the interested parties and

does not harm the rights and legally protected interests of third

parties;

(b) when in the course of appeal the act abrogates a previous

administrative act and decisions of its implementation;

(c) when so authorized by law.

Chapter II

Invalidity and Revocation of Administrative Acts

Art. 65

Types of Invalidity

For the purposes of this Code, administrative acts may be deemed invalid

in three respects:

(a) Acts suffering from a severe violation of the law are void.

(b) Acts suffering from a lesser violation of the law are voidable.

(c) Acts containing an obvious incorrectness are considered incorrect.

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Art. 66

Void Administrative Acts

(1) Void acts shall be those which lack any of their essential elements or in

respect of which the law has expressly imposed this form of invalidity.

(2) Administrative acts shall be void if

(a) issued by a non-identifiable administrative agency;

(b) issued by an agency acting outside its legally established authority;

(c) issued in violation of legally binding form and procedure or if

offending the essential content of a fundamental right;

(d) whose object is impossible, unintelligible or illegal.

Art. 67

Effects of Void Administrative Acts

(1) Void acts shall have no juridical effect, independently of any

declaration that the same are void.

(2) Any interested party may request at any time an act to be declared

void. Upon such a request or on its own motion, the administrative agency may

declare void an administrative act at any time.

(3) Where only part of the act is void, the whole act shall be considered

void if the nullified part is so substantial that the act would not have been issued

without the void part.

Art. 71

Revocation of Administrative Acts

(1) Administrative acts may be revoked on the motion of the competent

administrative body or at the request of the interested partied or third parties.

(2) Void acts may not be revoked.

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Art. 72

Revocation of Voidable Acts

(1) Any voidable administrative act containing a burden or establishing a

duty for its addressee may be revoked at any time with or without retroactive

effect.

(2) Any voidable administrative act granting a right or another benefit to

its addressee may only be revoked if the principle of legality or public interest

outweighs the legitimate trust on the part of the addressee.

(3) The protection of legitimate trust may not be claimed in cases where:

(a) the administrative act was issued following the submission by the

interested party of false or incomplete information;

(b) the administrative act was issued because of other violations of

the law on the part of the interested party;

(c) the interested party knew the invalidity of the act;

(d) the interested party did not comply with the purpose for which

the act was issued.

(4) Where the addressee of the act is entitled to claim protection of its

legitimate trust, the revocation of the act shall not have retroactive effect. Where

the addressee of the act may not claim protection of legitimate trust under the

provision laid down in the preceding paragraph, the revocation may have

retroactive effect.

(5) Where a voidable administrative act granting a right or another legal

benefit is revoked, the addressee of that act shall be entitled to a fair

compensation.

Art. 73

Revocation of Valid Administrative Acts

(1) A valid administrative act imposing a burden or establishing a duty for

the addressee may be revoked at any time with or without retroactive effect.

(2) A valid administrative act granting a right or another benefit to its

addressee may only be revoked if

(a) revocability is provided by law or by the act itself;

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(b) the interested parties agree to the revocation;

(c) the administrative act is encumbered with a charge [= obligation,

condition] and the interested party did not comply with the charge within

the established time limit;

(d) revocation can be justified by a compelling public interest.

(3) If a valid administrative act granting a legitimate right or another

legitimate benefit is revoked, the interested party shall be entitled to fair

compensation.

(4) Revocation shall have effect only for the future, unless

retroactivity is

(a) provided by law;

(b) in the interest of the parties or agreed to by the same;

(c) justified by a compelling public interest.

Art. 74

Motion for Revocation

(1) Administrative acts may be revoked by motion of the competent

agency or at the request of the interested parties or third parties, by means

of a request for review or administrative appeal, unless otherwise provided

by law.

(2) Administrative acts issued by delegation or sub-delegation may

be revoked by the delegating or sub-delegating body as well as by the

delegated or sub-delegated body as long as the delegation or sub-delegation

is valid.

(3) Administrative bodies superior to or supervising the issuing body

may repeal administrative acts only if so authorized by law.

Art. 75

Form and Time Limit of Revocation

(1) The revocation of administrative acts shall have to observe the

same formalities and shall be subject to the same procedures as the revoked

act unless otherwise provided by law.

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(2) Administrative acts may only be revoked within a time limit of

one year. The period begins to run on the day

(a) the administrative body notified the interested parties of its

intention to revoke the administrative act;

(b) the administrative body obtained knowledge of circumstances

justifying the revocation.

Chapter III

Execution [= Implementation] of Administrative Acts

Art. 77

Execution

(1) Administrative acts shall be capable of execution as soon as they

take effect.

(2) Obligations and respect for any restrictions which arise from an

administrative act may be enforced coercively by the Public Administration

without prior recourse to the courts, provided that the enforcement is made

in the form and subject to the conditions established by law.

(3) The execution of financial obligations which arise from

administrative acts may be enforced by the Public Administration under the

terms of the Tax Law.

Art. 78

Acts not Capable of Being Executed

(1) The following acts shall not be capable of being executed:

(a) acts whose taking effect has been suspended;

(b) acts which are subject to an appeal having suspensive effect;

(c) acts which are subject to approval by another administrative

body or by a private person;

(d) void acts;

(e) acts which only confirm acts capable of execution.

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(2) The taking effect of administrative acts may be suspended by

those administrative bodies having authority to revoke the same and by

those supervising/superior bodies to which the law grants such power, and

also by the courts according to the provisions of the Law on Administrative

Disputes [Code of Civil Procedure].

Art.79

Legality and Proportionality of Execution

(1) The execution of administrative acts must observe the principles

of legality and proportionality while ensuring the effectiveness of the

operation.

(2) Interested parties or third parties may bring administrative and

judicial appeal against those acts or operations of execution exceeding the

limits of the law or of the administrative act which is being executed, and

violate their legally protected interests or rights.

Art. 80

Notification of Execution

(1) Prior to the commencing of the execution, the decision to

proceed to administrative execution shall always be notified to the party to

whom it is addressed.

(2) The administrative body may notify the execution jointly with

the notification of the definitive administrative act and therefore subject to

immediate execution.

Art. 81

Purpose of Execution

Execution may be directed at

(a) the payment of a fixed sum of money;

(b) the handing over of an object;

(c) the performance of an obligation.

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Art. 82

Execution for Payment of a Fixed Sum

When, under the terms of an administrative acts, payment of a fixed

sum of money is ordered to be paid to the Public Administration, the

executing body shall follow, if such is appropriate, the procedural

provisions of the Tax Code.

Art. 83

Handing Over of an Object

In case the person under the obligation does not hand over the object

which the Public Administration should receive, the competent

administrative body shall take such steps as shall be necessary to obtain

administrative possession of the object.

Art. 84

Execution for Performance of an Obligation

(1) In the case of execution for performance of an obligation not

specifically personal to the debtor [of the obligation], the administrative

body shall notify the debtor, establishing a reasonable time period for the

obligation to be carried out.

(2) In case the debtor does not carry out the obligation within the

determined time period, the administrative body may choose to carry out the

acts to be executed or to do so through the intervention of a third party and

in this case all expenses, including compensation and pecuniary penalties,

shall be for the account of the person under the obligation.

(3) The performance of positive obligations which are specifically

personal to the debtor alone, may only be the object of direct execution

against the person under obligation in cases expressly set out in the law, and

always with strict observance of the fundamental rights established in the

Constitution [and the European Convention of Human Rights].

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Chapter IV

Notification

Art. 85

Duty to Notify

(1) Interested parties must be notified of all administrative acts

issued in relation to them

(a) in which decisions are taken about any claim formulated by

them;

(b) which impose duties, obligations or penalties or which may

cause loss;

(c) which create, extinguish, increase or diminish legally protected

interests or rights, or which may affect the conditions for the exercise of the

same.

(2) Third parties must be notified of all administrative acts issued in

relation to an interested party which may have negative consequences for

their legally protected interests or the exercise of their rights.

(3) In the following cases notification is waived:

(a) when the administrative act is practiced orally in the presence of

the interested party or third party;

(b) when the concerned interested party or third party, through any

participation in the proceedings, discloses his/her full knowledge of the

content of the act in question;

(c) where, because of the general nature of the administrative act,

the number of parties affected cannot be identified.

Art. 86

Contents of the Notification

(1) The notification must contain the following:

(a) the full text of the administrative act;

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(b) identification of the administrative proceedings, including the

indication of the name of the office holder/ civil servant responsible for the

act and the date of the same;

(c) the agency having competence or the court having jurisdiction to

decide any appeal against the act, the formalities to be observed for an

appeal and the time limit within which the appeal has to be filed.

(2) The full text of the act may be substituted by a summarised

indication of its contents and purpose, whenever the act has granted in full

the claim formulated by the interested party or third party, or where it deals

with the taking of procedural measures.

Part V

Administrative Review and Appeal

Chapter I

General Provisions

Art. 93

Right to Request Administrative Review

(1) Interested parties who are addressees or third parties who are

adversely affected by an administrative act shall have the right to request

the review of the same for the purpose of revocation, modification or

amendment, under the terms regulated by this Code.

(2) The right set out in the preceding paragraph may be exercised:

(a) by an informal request addressed to the administrative body or

office holder [= civil servant] responsible for the act; or

(b) by a formal administrative appeal addressed to the issuing

administrative body, to the superior agency or to the delegating agecy.

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Art. 94

Informal Request

(1) Informal requests shall not be subject to formalities, procedural

requirements, or time-limits.

(2) Informal requests must be treated like petitions according to

Article 24 of the Constitution. The petitioner is entitled to a reasoned

response within one month after the submission of the request.

(3) Informal requests shall suspend neither administrative acts nor

the time-limits.

(4) An administrative body receiving an informal request shall

inform the petitioner about the legal effects of such request, in particular

about the difference between an informal request and a formal

administrative appeal.

Art. 95

Administrative Appeal

(1) An administrative appeal may be filed against any administrative

act or the refusal to issue an administrative act.

(2) Upon an administrative appeal the competent administrative

body shall review the legality and the practicability of the contested

decision.

(3) Save for legal provisions to the contrary, judicial review shall

only be open to administrative acts that have been subject to administrative

appeal.

Art. 96

Formal Requirements of an Administrative Appeal

(1) Administrative appeals must always have as their basis the

illegality of the administrative act to be reviewed or of the refusal to issue

the administrative act applied for by the interested party.

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(2) The administrative appeal may be filed orally in the presence of

the competent office holder (civil servant) or in writing, save for legal

provisions requiring a specific form.

(3) In case of an oral filing of the appeal, the office holder (civil

servant) must record the name and address of the applicant and the facts and

reasons states by the applicant. The office holder (civil servant) must

confirm in writing the appeal and notify the applicant thereof within 7 days.

(4) A written appeal must contain the name and address of the

applicant and indicate the administrative act against which it is filed or

which is claimed. It should contain a statement of facts and reasons and the

necessary documents according to Article 51 of this Code.

(5) Any administrative body or office holder must assist applicants

in meeting the formal requirements according to the principle of

cooperation set forth in Article 5 of this Code.

Chapter II

Appeal Procedure

Art. 99

Appeal Decisions

According to the facts and the legal basis of the matter, the appeal

agency may decide to:

(a) uphold the contested administrative act and reject the appeal;

(b) revoke the act and accept the appeal;

(c) correct evident mistakes and uphold the act;

(d) modify or amend the act and partially uphold the appeal;

(e) oblige the administrative body to issue the act that was

previously refused.

Art. 100

Rejection of Appeals

Appeals shall be rejected where

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(a) they concern an administrative act which by its nature is not

subject to appeal;

(b) the time limit for filling the appeal has expired and restoration

cannot be granted or was not applied for;

(c) the appellant does not have standing to file an appeal;

(d) the appeal is deemed unfounded.

Art. 101

Notification of Third Parties Affected by the Appeal Decision

Where the appeal agency shall hold that the appeal decision is likely

to infringe, in any possible way, legally protected interests or rights of a

third party, the latter shall be invited to participate in the appeal procedure

and shall be notified of the appeal decision.

Art. 103

Appeal Procedure

(1) Where the administrative body which issued or which refused to

issue the contested administrative act decides to comply with the appeal

request it shall issue the decision.

(2) Where the competent administrative body decides to reject the

appeal request, it shall transfer the appeal to the superior or supervisory

agency (appeal agency) which shall review the matter and issue the final

appeal decision.

Art. 104

Effects of Administrative Appeal

(1) Any administrative appeal, not prima facie [evidently]

inadmissible or ungrounded, shall suspend the administrative act and its

execution.

(2) The suspensive effect shall be excluded:

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(a) where the purpose of the administrative act is the requisition of

public revenues [taxes and fees];

(b) in relation to undeferrable police measures;

(c) in other cases specifically regulated by law;

(d) where the immediate execution of the act has been expressly

ordered by the competent administrative body or the appeal agency for the

protection of public safety, public health or other compelling public

interests, or for the protection of the overriding interests of a third party.

(3) The appellant shall have the right to be informed why suspension

was denied. Where the immediate execution was ordered according to

subparagraph (d) of the preceding paragraph, the reasons must be stated in

writing.

(4) In the cases set out in paragraph 2 of this Article, the

administrative body which has the competence to issue the administrative

act or the appeal agency may stay the execution upon its own initiative or

the motion of the interested party, save for legal provisions to the contrary.

(5) Upon a motion of the interested party, the court having

jurisdiction may order the stay of the execution in the cases set out in

paragraph 2 if, on balance, the interest in suspension prevails over the

interest in execution. Details shall be regulated by the Law on

Administrative Disputes [Code of Civil Procedure].

Part VII

Administrative Contracts

Chapter I

General Provisions

Art. 114

Authorization

(1) Save for legal provisions to the contrary, administrative bodies

shall be authorized to conclude administrative contracts if they deem

contracts to be expedient for the public interest.

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(2) Where administrative bodies are authorized to issue an

administrative act they may instead conclude an administrative contract.

Art. 115

Definition and Types of Administrative Contracts

(1) Administrative contracts are agreements which constitute,

modify or terminate a legal relation under public law.

(2) Administrative contracts may be concluded as cooperative

contracts where the parties to a contract are agencies of the Public

Administration or as hierarchical [subordination] contracts where one party

to a contract is a private person.

(3) Cooperative and hierarchical contracts may be concluded as

(a) settlements where the uncertainty of a legal situation is to be

removed by mutual concessions of the parties concerned;

(b) exchange contracts where the parties enter into an agreement

about reciprocal claims.

Art. 116

Purposes for Administrative Contracts

Administrative contracts may be concluded in particular for the

following purposes:

(a) the undertaking or granting of public work;

(b) the granting of public services;

(c) trading franchising in the public sector or franchising of private

user within the public sector;

(d) supply upon a continuous basis;

(e) supply of services for the purpose of immediate public utility.

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Art. 117

Exchange Contracts

(1) Exchange contracts shall be subject to the condition that the

consideration [= counter-performance, obligation] of the private party

(a) may only be concluded for a definite purpose;

(b) must serve the fulfilment of a public task;

(c) must be adequate; and

(d) objectively related to the performance of the administrative

body.

(2) Where a party is entitled by law to obtain what the administrative

body promised in the contract, the counter-performance of the private party

shall only be legal/valid if it might be ordered as a condition, suspensive

condition or restriction to an administrative act according to Article 60.

Chapter II

Procedural Rules, Coercive Execution and Arbitration

Art. 119

Application of Provisions Relating to Administrative Proceedings

The provisions of this Code relating to administrative proceedings

shall be applicable, with the necessary adaptation, to the formation of

administrative contracts.

Art. 120

Consent

(1) Administrative contracts which infringe upon legally protected

interests or rights of third parties shall take effect only after the consent of

the same.

(2) Administrative contracts which replace administrative acts

requiring the agreement of another administrative body shall take effect

only after the said agreement has been formally obtained.

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Art. 121

Choice of Contractor

(1) Save for special regimes established by law, the contractor must

be chosen by public tender or by direct grant in contracts which seek to

associate private persons (entities) to the regular performance of

administrative functions.

(2) All entities which satisfy the general requirements established by

law shall be admitted to public tenders.

(3) Only those entities which satisfy the requirements specifically

established by the Administration in each case or which have been invited

for the purpose by the public contracting party shall be admitted to limited

tender.

(4) Direct grant must be preceded by consultation with at least three

entities.

Art. 122

Waiver of Tender

(1) Contracts must always be preceded by public tenders, and the

same may only be waived by a duly reasoned proposal by the competent

administrative body, which must receive the express agreement, in

conformity with the case, of its superior administrative body or supervisory

agency.

(2) Without prejudice to the preceding paragraph, the use or waiver

of public or limited tenders, as well as direct grants, shall depend upon the

observance of the provisions which regulate the incurring of public

expenditure.

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Art. 123

Coercive Execution

(1) Save for legal provisions to the contrary, the coercive execution

of contractual obligations in default may only be obtained through a court

decision.

(2) If, as a result of failure to perform contractual obligations, the

court shall order the individual contractor to perform an obligation or hand

over a certain object, the competent administrative body may, by a

definitive and executable administrative act obtain the coercive execution of

the judgement by administrative means.

Art. 124

Judicial Review and Arbitration

(1) Any differences arising between parties to an administrative

contract shall be decided by the courts according to the Law on

Administrative Disputes [Code of Civil Procedure].

(2) A clause which provides that any differences arising between

parties to an administrative contract shall be decided by an arbitration

tribunal shall be valid.

Vocabulary practice

I. Choose the correct answer:

1) This was one of the few crimes he did not ……….

a) achieve b) commit c) make d) perform

2) The ……… are still holding twelve people hostage on the plane.

a) bandits b) guerrillas c) hijackers d) kidnappers

3) Our insurance policy offers immediate ………. against the risk of

burglary, accident or damage by fire.

a) care b) cover c) relief d) security

4) The man jumped out of the window and committed ……….

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a) death b) homicide c) murder d) suicide

5) Police blamed a small hooligan ……… in the crowd for the violence

which occurred.

a) constituent b) division c) element d) portion

6) The police said there was no sign of a ……… entry even though the

house had been burgled.

a) broken b) burst c) forced d) smashed

7) Look, officer. I’m not drunk. I’m as ……… as a judge.

a) calm b) clear c) sober d) steady

8) He said he would sue us, but I don’t think he’ll ……… his threat.

a) achieve b) bring about c) carry out d) perform

9) The police caught the thief ……….

a) in black and white b) in red c) red-handed d) true blue

10) He offered me $500 to break my contract. That’s ……….

a) blackmail b) bribery c) compensation d) reward

11) The child was kidnapped by a notorious ……… of robbers.

a) crew b) gang c) staff d) team

12) The burglar ……… silently into the room.

a) crept b) stood c) strode d) wandered

II. Choose the right answer:

1. The policeman asked the suspect to make a(n) ……….

a) account b) declaration c) deposition d) statement

2. The chief of police said he saw no ……… between the four murderers.

a) communication b) connection c) join d) joint

3. The detective stood ……… behind the door waiting for the assailant.

a) immovable b) lifeless c) motionless d) static

4. The police asked if I thought I could ……… the man who stole my car if

I looked at some photos.

a) certify b) identify c) justify d) verify

5. The policeman was ……… when he saw a light in the office.

a) deductive b) disturbing c) suggestive d) suspicious

6. The inspector was very ……… and he rechecked the evidence several

times.

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a) attentive b) complete c) thorough d) suspicious

7. The police who were ……… the crime could find no clues at all.

a) enquiring b) investigating c) researching d) seeking

8. We promise not to reveal your ……… if you tell us who the murderer is.

a) anonymity b) identification c) identity d) personality

9. The police have not yet found a possible ……… for the murderer.

a) example b) motive c) principle d) understanding

10. It is the responsibility of the police to ……… the law, not to take into

their own hands.

a) compel b) enforce c) force d) press

11. After the accident, the policeman asked if there had been any ……….

a) observers b) onlookers c) spectators d) witnesses

III. Choose the right answer:

1. The ……… sentenced the accused to 15 years in prison.

a) barrister b) counsel c) judge d) solicitor

2. His comments ……… little or no relation to the facts of the crime.

a) bear b) give c) possess d) reflect

3. They all thought he was guilty, but no one could ……… anything

against him.

a) accuse b) ensure c) prove d) point

4. The youth involved in the disturbance at the demonstration made a(n)

……… to the police.

a) account b) notice c) statement d) summary

5. I ……… to say anything unless I am allowed to speak to my solicitor.

a) deny b) neglect c) refuse d) resist

6. The case against Mary Wrongdoer was ……… for lack of evidence.

a) discarded b) dismissed c) refused d) resigned

7. The new laws come into ……… on May 15.

a) condition b) date c) force d) power

8. The suspect ……… that he had assaulted a policeman.

a) contradicted b) declined c) denied d) refused

9. The suspect is ……… to have been in the neighbourhood at the time of

the crime.

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a) accused b) affirmed c) alleged d) announced

10. The high court judge will pass ……… next week.

a) justice b) punishment c) sentence d) verdict

11. The judge was very ……… on pickpockets.

a) bad b) hard c) strong d) strict

12. Peter gives one account on the accident and John another; it is difficult

to ……… the two versions.

a) adjust b) coincide c) identify d) reconcile

13. The suspect is not under arrest, nor have the police placed any ………

on his movements.

a) obstacle b) regulation c) restriction d) veto

14. Those acting for the defendant propose to appeal ……… the sentence.

a) against b) for c) out d) to

15. Mr Tipsy was ……… twenty pounds for drinking and driving.

a) charged b) fined c) ordered d) penalised

IV. Choose the correct answer:

1. After considering the case, the judge put the young offender ……… for

two years.

a) in charge b) in control c) on probation d) on trial

2. The young offenders were warned never to ……… with the members of

any gang.

a) assign b) assimilate c) associate d) assume

3. The accused man was able to prove his innocence at the trial and he was

……….

a) absolved b) acquitted c) forgiven d) pardoned

4. His sentence had been commuted to five months on the ……… of health

problems.

a) basis b) causes c) grounds d) reasons

5. He was thrown into prison and ……… of his property.

a) confiscated b) denied c) deprived d) removed

6. The judge recommended more human forms of punishment for juvenile

……….

a) convicts b) delinquents c) sinners d) villains

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7. The murderer proved to be an apparently well-behaved ……… middle-

aged woman.

a) inoffensive b) offensive c) unoffending d) unsuspicious

8. After considering the evidence for a few hours, the jury came to a(n)

……… verdict.

a) unambiguous b) unanimous c) undivided d) united

9. It was a reasonable ……… to draw in the light of evidence.

a) assessment b) conclusion c) interpretation d) verdict

V. Choose the word or phrase that best keeps the meaning of

the original sentence if it is substituted for the underlined

word:

1. A smiling face often distinguishes the mind and heart of a villain.

a) a foolish man b) a lying man c) an unhappy man d) a

wicked man

2. At first, the accident seems to be a trivial one.

a) critical b) momentous c) significant d) unimportant

3. There was no trace of poison in the coffee the chemist analysed.

a) colour b) indication c) smell d) taste

4. The frown on the judge’s face showed that he was displeased.

a) look of anger b) look of delight c) look of fear d) look

of surprise

5. The driver tried to avert the accident by bringing the car to a sudden

stop.

a) cause b) control c) minimize d) prevent

6. The indecisive man was readily persuaded to change his mind again.

a) abruptly b) easily c) hardly d) subtly

7. The officer compelled the prisoner to do exactly as he wished.

a) allowed b) forced c) beseeched d) hired

8. The criminal insinuated that he had been roughly treated by the

arresting officer.

a) argued convincingly b) denied positively

c) stated flatly d) suggested indirectly

9. The boy felt disgraced because he knew that he had been wrong to steal.

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a) ashamed b) sorry c) tempted d) worried

10. The judge sentenced the convicted man.

a) gave a pardon to b) gave his praise to

c) passed judgement upon d) sympathized with

11. It is useless to attempt to flee from every danger. Some risk must be

taken.

a) hide oneself b) protect oneself c) run away d) stay away

Reading comprehension

I. Answer the questions:

1. Is there any difference between civil and criminal proceedings?

2. Which are the aims of the civil law and civil proceedings?

3. Who is the person who begins the proceedings and what does he do?

4. What does the civil law establish?

5. Enumerate the institutions of civil law.

6. What are the criminal law and criminal proceedings concerned with?

7. What is the task of the prosecutor in criminal proceedings?

II. Which of the following sentences are true and which are

false? Correct the false ones:

1. The distinction between civil and criminal proceedings is of no

importance in understanding of the English legal system.

2. The questions of taxation are of private law nature.

3. In most criminal proceedings the person beginning the proceedings is the

plaintiff.

4. Most civil proceedings are heard by a jury of 12 persons.

5. The objective of criminal proceedings is to provide a remedy for the

person wronged.

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UNIT 6

ECONOMY

TAXATION AND TAX SYSTEMS

In Britain and the USA a variety of taxes are collected in order to pay for

government expenditure. The three main kinds of taxation are taxes on income

and profits, taxes on capital and taxes on capital and taxes on expenditure.

The British financial year runs from April to March and in March each

year the Chancellor of the Exchequer presents a budget for the coming year in the

House of Commons. Most changes to taxes are made then and new taxes may be

introduced.

Income tax is paid on earnings, profits and investment income. Every

taxpayer has a personal allowance, an amount of money that is tax-free, and above

this allowance all income is taxed. In 1991 there were two bands of income tax,

the first taxed at 25 per cent and a higher band taxed at 40 per cent for people with

higher than average incomes.

Employees pay tax through the Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) system, by

which tax is deducted by the employer from weekly or monthly earnings and paid

to the Inland Revenue (the government body responsible for collecting taxes on

income and capital). People who do not pay tax by the PAYE method normally

fill in a statement of their earnings (called a tax return) and pay tax directly to the

Inland Revenue. Companies pay corporation tax on their profits. In 1991 the rate

was 35 per cent, with a lower 25 per cent rate for small companies. There is a

special 75 per cent tax on the profits earned from North Sea oil production.

The main taxes on capital are inheritance tax, which is paid on transfers of

wealth made on a person’s death or in the seven years before it, and capital gains

tax (CGT), which is paid at the same rate as income tax on the gains made when

assets such as property or shares are sold. A person’s home is exempt from capital

gains tax.

Taxes on expenditure include Value Added Tax (VAT), customs duties

and excise duties. Value Added Tax is a percentage added to the price of goods

and services and collected by the Customs and Excise department. In 1991 it was

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17.5 per cent. Certain categories of goods are exempt, including food, books,

periodicals, children’s clothes, public transport and fuel (except petrol). Customs

duties are paid on imports from other European Community countries. Excise

duties are taxes on petrol, alcohol, cigarettes, tobacco, gambling and vehicles.

In addition to the taxes paid to central government, there is a tax payable

to the local authority in each area. Formerly a tax on each dwelling, called ‘the

rates’, it was replaced in 1990 by the community charge, a tax on every person on

the electoral register (the list of people eligible to vote) in an area. This tax,

popularly called the ‘poll tax’, was extremely unpopular and caused widespread

protests. It was in turn replaced in 1991 by a ‘council tax’, a compromise between

the rates as a property-based tax and the community charge. The business rates

charged by local authorities were replaced in 1990 by a unified business rate

payable to central government.

In the USA, there are two income tax percentage rates, as in Britain, but

they are about one third lower. The amount of income that is taxable at one or the

other rate varies for single people, married couples, people with children, etc.

There is a scheme similar to PAYE, but it is based on a person’s estimate of what

earnings will be for the coming year, and income tax is deducted on the basis of

that. Tax is calculated on the basis of a percentage plus a flat fee which varies

according to the level of income. At the end of the tax year (which is the same as

the calendar year), the taxpayer has to fill in a complicated form with details of

what was actually earned. The difference between what has been deducted and

what should have been deducted is then paid or refunded, as appropriate.

People who earn less than a specified minimum do not have to complete a

tax return. The amount varies, again, according to the person’s status. For a

couple under pension age (65), for example, it is about $10000.

In the USA income tax is collected by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Some states charge a local income tax in addition to the federal tax. Even where

this is the case, however, US income tax levels are still lower than the British.

As well as income tax, other US taxes include gift tax on amounts over

$10000 to a single person in a single year, estate tax (the equivalent of British

inheritance tax) on money on property over $40000, sales tax (the equivalent of

British capital gains tax) on the sale of personal property, and property tax (the

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equivalent of the British council tax) as a local tax on the value of a person’s

property.

TAX EVASION. BRIBERY. CORRUPTION

Business organizations have the same motivation to avoid paying their

taxes as individual citizens. But there is one essential difference between

individual and corporate tax payers: because the latter have vastly more political

influence, they are able to obtain specific industry – by industry tax breaks and

loopholes to make most corporate tax avoidance completely legal. The

bewildering complexity of the tax laws is a major ally of corporate tax dodgers. It

often takes years of litigation to determine if a new corporate tax strategy is legal

or not. As a result, most corporations are shielded from criminal prosecution even

when their actions are apparently intended to defend the Government.

Bribery is a universal phenomenon with roots that stretch far back into

human history. References in Greek and Roman laws, as well as in the Bible,

show that bribery was condemned with harsh penalties in ancient societies.

Many criminologists classify individual bribery cases on the basis of the

intended target. Thus, they distinguish bribery directed at private firms and

individuals from bribery directed at government employees. From a sociological

viewpoint, however, it makes more sense to include in bribery the payoffs made

to win private business, for the motivations and modus operandi of the offenders

are often identical. Accordingly, we will distinguish between commercial bribery

intended to promote sales or obtain confidential business information, and

political bribery, intended to influence government policy.

The concept of commercial bribery is a more recent legal development.

And although it is often condemned, many more people are willing to brush it off

as a normal business practice that causes little real harm. Supporters of this

position argue that the total amount of money paid out in bribery cases is

relatively small and has little effect on the average consumer. Critics charged that

even if the total amount of money involved in commercial bribery is small, the

practice creates a climate of corruption and disrespect for the law and gives major

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corporations with vast financial resources an unfair advantage over their smaller

competitors in the USA. When firms attempt to buy sales for their products, their

first targets are often the purchasing agents who are paid to make such decisions.

Corporate payoffs are often made through dummy firms set up specifically to act

as conduits for illegal transactions. Under this arrangement, the parent corporation

can write off bribe money as a legitimate business expense and claim it knew

nothing about the payoffs.

Sometimes, businesses distribute payoff money through sale agents.

Because many multinational corporations find it difficult and expensive to set up

an office in every country in which they do business, they often employ local

sales agents who know the people involved in making major purchases. Such

agents also provide an excellent conduit for the distribution of bribe money, as

they know who is likely to accept bribes and what kind of inducements they

prefer. In addition, the use of local sale agents allows foreign multinational to

avoid direct involvement in the illicit payments.

Regarding political bribery and corruption, there are special-interest

groups that use a host of different techniques to bend the government’s actions to

their ends. Despite their corrosive effects upon the democratic process, many of

those techniques are completely legal. The most popular legal method of

purchasing political influence is still through campaign contributions. Recent

restrictions on direct corporate contributions to political candidates have created

some problems and led to many illegal attempts to skirt the law.

Corporations sometimes provide free services directly to sympathetic

candidates, in the hope that such assistance will be less obvious than illegal

monetary contributions. Other corporations make large loans to candidates that

may or may not be paid back, or secretly pay campaign expenses by shifting part

of a candidate’s advertising bills to their own accounts.

Corporations have not always been content to operate through such

indirect methods, and there have been numerous relations of direct corporate

payments to finance election campaign.

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Reading comprehension

1. Compare the Anglo-Saxon tax system with the Romanian.

2. What is the VAT/

3. What is the income tax?

4. What other taxes do you know?

5. What is the difference between individual and corporate tax-payers?

6. What do you mean by bribery?

7. Which are the roots of bribery?

Vocabulary practice

I. Choose the most suitable word for each space.

Someone once described the age we live in as that of a vanishing world,

one in which the familiar is constantly disappearing for ever and technological

change is often difficult to (1) ……… with. So it should come as no surprise to

most of us to hear that yet another part of everyday life is (2) ……… to go for

ever. Still, when I read recently that within the next decade money as we (3)

……… it will probably cease to exist in technologically advanced countries, I had

to read the article twice to make sure it wasn’t April 1st. (4) ……… to Professor

Gerry Montague of the Institute for Economic Reform, the familiar (5) ………

and banknotes will soon be replaced entirely by credit cards of various kinds. And

the shop of the future (the ‘retail outlet’ as Prof. Montague puts it) will be (6)

……… directly to the network of banking computers. The assistant will simply

key in your bank account code number and the (7) ……… you have spent, and

thank you politely. You don’t have to dig deep in your (8) ………. for change and

pretend at the pub that you have left your money at home. You may not even have

a number for your (9) ……… as such, as the computer may by then be able to

read your handprint. So no more credit card frauds (10) ……… . But I am afraid

that I shall (11) ……… money. I have felt strongly attached to it, ever since I

received my first pocket money when I was five, and kept it in a money-box.

Even if my credit card of the future will be able to tell me exactly how much (12)

……… power I have left in the computer files, even if it lights up and plays a

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happy (or sad) tune at the same time, nothing will be able to replace the sheer

pleasure I gained from (13) ……… the coins in my money-box. Not to (14)

……… the other obvious problems which will be caused by (15) ………. of real

money – like how to start a football match, for example!

1. a) keep b) manage c) cope d) survive

2. a) about b) almost c) ready d) tending

3. a) earn b) know c) use d) need

4. a) thanks b) contrary c) according d) accustomed

5. a) banks b) coins c) change d) pence

6. a) taken b) alone c) responsible d) linked

7. a) money b) charge c) cost d) amount

8. a) pockets b) wallet c) cheque book d) cash

9. a) wealth b) savings c) account d) payment

10. a) arrested b) either c) stolen d) however

11. a) miss b) spend c) waste d) borrow

12. a) more b) financial c) economical d) spending

13. a) rattling b) withdrawing c) estimating d) throwing

14. a) tell b) confront c) guess d) mention

15. a) a shortage b) an expense c) an absence d) a replacement

II. In each sentence choose one or more appropriate words.

1. Harry gains/gets/makes over $50000 a year.

2. Mary was awarded a grant/scholarship/subsidy to study child

psychology.

3. How much did you give/pay/take for your new car?

4. Their house fetched/produced/sold for a lot more than they expected.

5. I’m going to the bank to get out/remove/withdraw the money for the

rent.

6. The manager disappeared with the receipts/takings/wages from the

concert.

7. By the time Kate retired she was a fortunate/prosperous/wealthy

businesswoman.

8. We had a good holiday but it was rather costly/expensive/valuable.

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9. We would appreciate it if you would close/settle/pay your bill as soon as

possible.

10. Unfortunately the old painting I found turned out to be

priceless/valueless/worthless.

III. Complete each sentence with one of the words given.

account currency market venture

claim enterprise payment

company figures price

1. John became rich by playing the stock ……….

2. We have decided to turn our business into a limited ……….

3. This government believes firmly in the value of free ……….

4. I am interested in buying the property, but I find the ……… too high.

5. I am saving money to make the down ……… on a new car.

6. We put in an insurance ……… after our house was damaged in a storm.

7. Everyone was impressed with the sales ……… for the new product.

8. Margaret lost a lot of money in an unwise business ……….

9. I keep most of my money in a savings ……….

10. Our company receives a lot of payments in foreign ……….

IV. Match each sentence a) to j) with a sentence from 1) to 10) which has

a similar meaning.

a) We have to haggle.

b) We have a nice little nest-egg.

c) We have high expenditure.

d) We get in free.

e) We are in debt.

f) We are very thrifty.

g) We are paid on commission.

h) We want a rise.

i) We lend money.

j) We have a high income.

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1) We spend a lot.

2) We don’t waste money.

3) We let people borrow from us.

4) We earn according to what we sell.

5) We argue about the price.

6) We earn a lot.

7) We don’t have to pay.

8) We need higher wages.

9) We owe money.

10) We have some savings.

V. Choose the most suitable word or phrase.

1. I inherited $10000 in my uncle’s ……….

a) legacy b) inheritance c) will d) testament

2. The ……… price is lower than the retail price.

a) wholesale b) bargaining c) cut d) budget

3. I still have three more ……… to pay on my motorbike.

a) shares b) donations c) instalments d) contributions

4. We had to give the customs official a ……… not to inspect our

suitcases.

a) fee b) reward c) bonus d) bribe

5. After my business failed, I was declared ……… by the court.

a) profitless b) bankrupt c) insignificant d) uneconomical

6. As soon as you buy a car, it starts falling in ……….

a) cost b) worth c) value d) price

7. A multinational company has made a/an ……… to take over our firm.

a) bid b) venture c) investment d) estimate

8. We demanded pay rises to take account of the ……… of inflation.

a) figures b) percentage c) price d) rate

9. Things are going well. In fact, business is ……….

a) soaring b) booming c) leaping d) rolling

10. I ……… you don’t make as much profit this year!

a) assure b) challenge c) bet d) doubt

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VI. Replace the words underlined by one of the words given.

agenda charge handle unavailable

bargain expense income

chair fortune takings

1. Sheila made a lot of money selling used cars.

2. When Mark took his new job, his earnings nearly doubled.

3. The cost of moving house was another problem for us.

4. We need someone else to be in charge of the meeting.

5. I am afraid this product is temporarily out of stock.

6. We usually count the money we have made when the shop closes.

7. Do you like my new dress? It was a very good price.

8. We don’t deal with goods of that kind in this company.

9. Don’t forget to draw up the list of items to be discussed for the next

meeting.

10. We make no request for payment for delivery in the London area.

VII. Replace the phrase underlined in each sentence with one of the

phrases given. Do not use any phrase more than once.

challenged the figures in credit

come into a fortune make a wise investment

commercially viable on easy terms

financial means on expenses

free of charge on the market

1. We’ve decided to put our house up for sale.

2. Jean has inherited a lot of money.

3. At the meeting Peter said he thought the amounts were wrong.

4. No one believes that the shop will ever be a business success.

5. I am the possessor of a healthy balance at the bank.

6. Sue and Jane went to South America with everything paid for by their

company.

7. We don’t believe you have the money to take over this company.

8. All employees can stay at the hotel without paying.

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9. We bought our new electric cooker by instalments.

10. Harry became rich after he managed to put his money in the right

place.

VIII. In each sentence, replace one or more words with one of the words

given, so that the sentence has an opposite meaning.

appreciate make rise worthless

dear prosperous squander

hard up purchase wasteful

1. The precious stones our company mines are now known to be priceless.

2. Nigel cannot get used to being an unsuccessful businessman.

3. The company has decided to sell the premises in East Road.

4. I like living in this part of town.

5. Jim inherited $20000 and managed to save it all.

6. We were poor when I was young and my father was very thrifty.

7. At the moment house values tend to go down in this area.

8. The workers were given a cut in wages when the takeover was

announced.

9. Nobody thought that the company would lose a lot of money.

10. Richard’s family is incredibly well-off.

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UNIT 7

POLITICS

THE GOVERNMENT

The British government operates at both national (central) and local levels.

Nationally, it is represented by the body of ministers who administer the county’s

affairs under the Prime Minister. The Sovereign appoints as prime minister the

leader of the party that has a majority in the House of Commons.

The Prime Minister not only presides over the ministers but by tradition

holds the post of First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. The

Prime Minister also appoints an advisory council of about 20 ministers. This is the

Cabinet, which meets once or twice a week, whether Parliament is sitting or not.

Most but not all the Cabinet ministers are in charge of a government

department and have the title ‘Secretary of State’ or simply ‘Minister’. The head

of the finance department, called the Treasury, has the title ‘Chancellor of the

Exchequer’. There are Secretaries of State for the Home Office, Foreign and

Commonwealth Affairs, Wales, Employment, Defence, Trade and Industry,

Health, Education and Science, Scotland, Transport, Energy, Social Security, the

Environment, and Northern Ireland. All these are in the Cabinet, as are holders of

other traditional offices, such as the Lord President of the Council, who do not

have responsibility for a government department.

After the Cabinet ministers come the four Law officers, under the Lord

Chancellor, and the Ministers of State, who work with the heads of department

and who often have specific functions. They in turn are followed by the junior

ministers, who are usually known as ‘Under-Secretaries of State’. Like the

Ministers of State, they work with specific departments.

Until the system of Cabinet government developed in the 18th century, the

chief executive body was the Privy Council. This still exists, but is now the

private council of the Queen, as head of state. It comprises all Cabinet ministers,

as ‘Privy Councillors’, together with a number of other distinguished people from

both Britain and the Commonwealth. There are about 390 Privy Councillors. A

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full session of the Privy Council is held only on the death of the sovereign or

when he or she announces an intention to marry.

Apart from the government departments, there are other bodies that play a

part in the process of government. Examples of these are the Arts Council of

Great Britain, the British Council, and the Commission for Racial Equality.

Local government is carried out by local authorities led by elected

councils, which may not necessarily represent the political party of the central

government in Parliament. Their link with central government is through the

Department of the Environment. Other departments also concerned with local

government functions are the Department of Education and Science, the

Department of Social Security, and the Home Office. In Scotland local

government is the overall responsibility of the Scottish Office, in Wales of the

Welsh Office, and in Northern Ireland of the Department of the Environment for

Northern Ireland.

Elected councils operate at several levels. There are town councils,

borough councils, district councils and county councils. There are also parish

councils in rural areas. There are 53 counties in Britain, within which there are

369 districts. In London, the local authorities are the councils of the 32 boroughs

and the Corporation of the City of London. Until recently Greater London had its

own council, the Greater London Council (GLC), but this was abolished in 1986.

County councils, which are responsible for the widest areas, deal with the

general planning and administration in a county, while district councils operate

more locally. This means that county councils are responsible for such aspects as

transport, education, police, the fire service and social services, while district

councils oversee such matters as housing, environmental health and refuse

collection.

State schools are the responsibility of the local education authority (LEA),

answerable to the Department of Education and Science (DES). Until recently,

education in Inner London was run by a single body, the Inner London Education

Authority (ILEA), but in 1990 the government abolished the ILEA and transferred

its powers to individual borough councils.

In the USA, the Constitution, drawn up in 1787, established the structure

of government. Power is divided between the federal government and the

governments of the individual states. There are three branches of the federal

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government, the executive, the legislative and the judicial. The executive branch

is led by the President who chooses a cabinet made up of the heads of the

administrative departments. The legislative branch is the Congress, made up of

the Senate and the House of Representatives. The federal courts, including the

Supreme Court, make up the judicial branch.

At the state level, each of the states has its own system of local

government, which can take different forms. The most common administrative

areas are counties and cities, with some cities also incorporating towns or

boroughs. In US usage, ‘local government’ usually means the governing body of

the district, that is, it is similar to the British ‘local authority’.

THE PARLIAMENT

The British Parliament makes the laws of the country, and consists of two

chambers: the House of Commons, where most of the power lies, and the House

of Lords. Its official head is the monarch.

Historically, Parliament developed from the councils which in early times

were appointed to advise the king. From the 13th to the 17th century, Parliament

was presided over by the king. In the 17th century a struggle developed between

the king (Charles I) and Parliament, resulting in the English Civil War. In the

‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688 Parliament removed King James II from the throne

and replaced him with William of Orange and his wife Mary, who accepted the

terms of the Bill of Rights. This guaranteed the rights and liberty of individual

citizens and gave Parliament more power than the Crown. Since 1832, the year of

the first Reform Act, the House of Commons has become increasingly important,

and the House of Lords less so.

The House of Commons has 650 Members of Parliament (MPs), each

elected by a majority of votes in a constituency at a general election or by-

election. Of the 650 seats, 523 are for England, 38 for Wales, 72 for Scotland and

17 for Northern Ireland. The chief officer of the House of Commons is the

Speaker, who is politically neutral and who presides over the House during

debates.

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The House of Lords has two types of members: Lords Spiritual and Lords

Temporal. The Lords Spiritual are the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the

Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester, and the 21 bishops who are next in

seniority. The Lords Temporal are all peers, both hereditary and life peers. Certain

life peers are appointed to serve as Lords of Appeal or ‘Law Lords’, their function

being to assist the House in its judicial functions. Unlike the MPs in the House of

Commons, many members of the House of Lords are not involved in party politics

at all. There are just over 1000 Lords in the House, most of whom are hereditary

peers. Some Labour MPs have campaigned for the abolition of the House of

Lords, or at least for significant changes in its functions and structure.

The operation of Parliament is closely tied to the country’s political

system, with the party in power represented by the Prime Minister and the

Cabinet, as the Government, and the party with the next highest number of MPs as

the Opposition with its Shadow Cabinet. The Conservative and Labour Parties

have been the parties of government since the Second World War.

The debating chamber of the House of Commons, in the Palace of

Westminster, is actually quite small, and can hold only 346 of the 650 MPs. The

Speaker sits at one end, while the seats (called benches) on which members sit in

their two opposing parties, run the length of the chamber on both sides of the

Speaker’s chair. The two sides, Government and Opposition, thus physically face

each other in the House. The leading Government members (the Prime Minister

and the Cabinet) sit on the front benches to the right of the Speaker, while their

equivalents (the Leader of the Opposition and the Shadow Cabinet) sit on the

benches on the Speaker’s left. MPs representing minority parties sit next to the

Opposition. Members of the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet are known as ‘front-

benchers’, and their respective supporters, who sit behind them, are known as

‘back-benchers’. The front bench on the Government’s side is known as the

‘Treasury bench’, because the Prime Minister is also the First Lord of the

Treasury. Between the front benches is the ‘Table of the House’, on which are

books and stationery and twp dispatch boxes, one on each side of the table. When

front-benchers stand up to speak, they often lean on their dispatch box, whereas

back-benchers simply stand by their seats. A similar arrangement applies to the

House of Lords, but Lords who do not wish to be associated with any party sit on

‘cross-benches’, seats at the far end of the Chamber at right angles to the rest. In

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both Houses, there are galleries for the press and member of the public wishing to

watch debates.

After a subject is debated, it can either be agreed to without a vote, or

decided by voting. A proposal for a new law is called a ‘bill’. Its formal

introduction is known as the ‘first reading’, the subsequent debate and vote on it is

the ‘second reading’, and its final review is the ‘third reading’. After the third

reading, a bill that started in the House of Commons goes to the House of Lords

for consideration there, and one that started in the Lords is similarly passed to the

Commons. When both Houses are agreed, the bill is passed to the monarch for

‘Royal Assent’, after which it becomes one of the laws of the land and is known

as an Act of Parliament.

Most bills are ‘public’ bills, relating to the public in general. Some,

however, are ‘private bills’, and are concerned with a particular individual or

company or some specific local matter. Public bills can be introduced by any MP,

whether a government minister or a ‘private’ member (the term for an MP who is

not a minister). Private bills begin when the individual or body concerned, such as

a local authority, presents a petition to Parliament. They then follow the same

procedure as for public bills.

The parliamentary day begins at 2.30 pm from Monday to Thursday, and

business may well continue until late at night, or even last through the night. On

Fridays the House meets between 9.30 am and 2.30 pm. The hours are different

then because Friday is the day when most MPs leave London to spend the

weekend in their constituencies. The Lords meet in a similar way to the Commons

but for fewer days in the year.

Certain parliamentary occasions are particularly important. One is the

State Opening of Parliament, which takes place annually, usually at the end of

October or after a general election, when the monarch goes from Buckingham

Palace to the Palace of Westminster to make the Queen’s (or King’s) Speech. This

is the speech that outlines the Government’s programme for the coming session of

Parliament. The monarch delivers it in the House of Lords, to which MPs are

specially invited. Another occasion is the annual Budget Statement, made by the

Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House of Commons, usually on a Tuesday in

March or April. In this speech, the Chancellor discusses the economic situation

and outlines the measures to be introduced in order to raise the money the

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Government needs. A third important event in the life of every MP is a ‘maiden

speech’, when a new Member of Parliament stands up to speak for the first time.

When MPs agree with what a particular speaker is saying, they often

indicate this by saying ‘Hear, hear’. When speeches are controversial, they may

be interrupted with jeers and shouted comments. In extreme cases of noise and

disorder, the Speaker may have to expel an MP from the Chamber, or suspend a

sitting. Maiden speeches, on the other hand, are by tradition never interrupted.

Parliamentary proceedings in the Commons have been broadcast by radio

for several years; since 1989 they have also been televised. A written account of

each day’s speeches and debates in Parliament is printed in the publication

Hansard, while many newspapers also print edited accounts of speeches and

exchanges, particularly important or entertaining ones.

Reading comprehension

What is the Shadow Cabinet?

Who are the ‘front-benchers’? What about the ‘back-benchers’?

Describe the Romanian government, starting from the English description.

Compare the Romanian Parliament with the British.

Vocabulary practice

I. Choose the most suitable word for each space.

Viewed from the outside at least, the Houses of Parliament give a firm

impression of all those (1) ……… which we are supposed to value in the British

form of government. The architecture gives the place a (2) ……… look, and the

buildings are sandwiched between a busy square and the river, with Westminster

Abbey not far away, making them a (3) ……… between the country house of an

eccentric duke and a Victorian railway station. You have only to learn that the (4)

……… refer to each other as ‘The Honourable Member for So and So’ to

complete the picture of a dignified gentleman’s club, with of course a few ladies

to (5) ……… the numbers. Sadly, over the past few years first radio, and now

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television, have shown the general (6) ………, who are after all the electorate,

what in fact goes on when bills are (7) ……… and questions are asked. The first

obvious fact is that the chamber is very rarely full, and there may be only a (8)

……… of members present, some of (9) ……… are quite clearly asleep, telling

jokes to their neighbour, or engaged in shouting like badly-behaved

schoolchildren. There is not enough (10) ………. for them all in the chamber in

any case, which is a second worrying point. Of course, television does not follow

the work of (11) ……… which are the small discussion groups that do most of the

real work of the House. But the (12) ……… impression that we as (13) ………

receive of the workings of government is not a good one. To put it bluntly,

parliament looks disorganised, is clearly behind the times and seems to be (14)

……… with bores and comedians. This is presumably why members resisted for

so long the efforts of the BBC to broadcast parliamentary (15) ……… on

television.

1. a) views b) appearances c) identities d) features

2. a) fashionable b) traditional c) close-up d) notorious

3. a) mixture b) combination c) cross d) match

4. a) members b) candidates c) delegates d) senators

5. a) take away b) bring about c) make up d) set in

6. a) situation b) public c) interest d) rule

7. a) paid b) determined c) voted d) discussed

8. a) handful b) majority c) few d) number

9. a) these b) whom c) them d) others

10. a) seats b) places c) room d) around

11. a) elections b) those c) everyone d) committees

12. a) overall b) visual c) positive d) striking

13. a) audience b) often c) voters d) well

14. a) working b) inevitably c) filled d) much

15. a) matters b) committees c) speeches d) debates

II. Choose the most appropriate word underlined.

1. By the early evening, most people had administered/cast/selected their

votes.

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2. The government has decided to hold/introduce/organise an early

election.

3. Voting for strike action must be done by secret ballot/electorate/poll.

4. Each member of parliament represents a specific

candidate/constituency/convention.

5. Before the election, each party published its election

brochure/manifesto/synopsis.

6. Mark Brown has been delegated/nominated/represented for the post of

honorary treasurer.

7. It’s impossible to predict which way the election will go because there

are so many indefinite/undecided/unknowing voters.

8. My sister has decided to candidate/put in/stand for parliament in the

next election.

9. The party’s election campaign/movement/struggle proved to be

successful.

10. The National Party won the election with an increased

majority/percentage/score.

III. Complete each sentence with one of the words given. Do not use a

word more than once.

administration cabinet motion reign

authorities council poll

bill mayor power

1. Mr Bill Bradford has been elected ……… of Greenswold for the third

time.

2. The government has introduced a ……… outlining its plans for the coal

industry.

3. Mrs Fletcher has wide experience of ………, having previously been

head of a large school in Bristol.

4. According to the latest opinion ………, the National Party are well

ahead of their nearest rivals, the Cooperative Party.

5. Although there is an elected assembly, it is generally recognised that

General Domenico wields the real ……….

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6. There is a locally elected ……… which has responsibility for roads,

street lighting, and other facilities.

7. The king enjoyed a long ………, and was eventually succeeded by his

son, George.

8. The ……… were slow to take control of the situation after the

earthquake.

9. The Leader of the Opposition proposed a ……… of no confidence in

the government.

10. Members of the ……… have a meeting with the Prime Minister each

week.

IV. Replace the word or words underlined with one of the words given. Do

not use a word more than once.

abolished compulsory permitted voluntary

barred illegal required

binding licensed restricted

1. The proprietor is officially allowed to sell alcohol.

2. The sale of drugs is controlled by law in most countries.

3. Education from the age of five is obligatory in Britain.

4. Students have been banned from using local pubs since the incident.

5. The law prohibiting the sale of fruit in the street has been done away

with.

6. For both parties to the agreement, the terms of this contract are to be

obeyed.

7. With the application, a passport-sized photograph is necessary.

8. Smoking is not allowed in the classroom.

9. You don’t have to stay after school to help; it’s your own decision.

10. Parking in this street is not allowed on weekdays at certain times.

V. Choose the most suitable word or phrase.

1. The minister has ……… new proposals for discussion with the union.

a) made out b) set down c) drawn up d) worked in

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2. The Prime Minister stated that law and order must be ……… at all

costs.

a) maintain b) imposed c) suppressed d) conveyed

3. Mr Jackson challenged the government as to who exactly was ………

the country.

a) reigning b) ministering c) administrating d) running

4. Union leaders called for ……… between themselves and the

government.

a) speeches b) elections c) debates d) consultations

5. The chairman asked the secretary to take the ……… of the meeting.

a) minutes b) discussions c) rulings d) notes

6. The generals ……… the country in a lightning coup d’etat.

a) overwhelmed b) took over c) ran over d) overruled

7. The minister has a talent for talking to ordinary people as if they were

her ……….

a) level b) fellows c) counterparts d) equals

8. There are so many rules and ……… about importing food that you need

to consult a good lawyer.

a) laws b) regulations c) licences d) orders

9. A politician always needs to protect his or her ……….

a) notoriety b) publicity c) reputation d) rumour

10. Parliament has now ……… a law making skateboarding illegal on

Sundays.

a) passed b) legislated c) voted d) billed

VI. Match the words and phrases in a) to j) with the explanations in 1) to

10).

a) civil disobedience f) a radical

b) a conformist g) self-determination

c) a dictatorship h) the establishment

d) the head of state i) a licence

e) middle of the road j) the civil service

1) If you are this, then technically you rule the country.

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2) If you are one of these, you believe in complete political change.

3) If you are this, you like to behave in the same way as everyone else.

4) This consists of powerful people and organisations who support the

social order.

5) This is an organised campaign involving breaking the law.

6) You might need one of these to get married, to drive, or to own a gun.

7) This is the right for people to decide about their future for themselves,

rather than let a colonial power do it for them.

8) If you live under one of these, then you live in a state controlled by one

powerful person.

9) If you are this, you have no strong political opinions.

10) the various departments of the government

VII. Complete each sentence with one of the words given.

conventional formal progressive respectable

courteous oppressed reactionary

diplomatic privileged rebellious

1. If you are ………, you are tactful when dealing with people.

2. If you are ………, you have a good reputation in your community.

3. If you are ………, you are polite.

4. If you are ………, you are strongly against any kind of change.

5. If you are ………, you are being ruled unjustly or cruelly.

6. If you are ………, you behave just like everyone else, perhaps too much

so.

7. If you are ………, you are against authority and hard to control.

8. If you are ………, you have more advantages than other people.

9. If you are ………, you like to follow social rules and customs on certain

occasions.

10. If you are ………, you are in favour of new ideas.

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VIII. Match the words given to the explanations.

ambassador minister ringleader traitor

chairperson patriot sovereign

delegate president terrorist

1. This person may be the elected head of state.

2. This person is responsible for a government department.

3. This person leads others to make trouble.

4. This person represents their country abroad.

5. This person loves their country.

6. This person represents others at a meeting or conference.

7. This person betrays their country.

8. This person may be the head of state by birth.

9. This person uses violence rather than the political system for political

ends.

10. This person is the head of a formal meeting.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

UNIT ONE............................................................................................................................3

WINSTON CHURCHILL’S PREP SCHOOL................................................................................3

THE IDEA OF SUMMERHILL.......................................................................................................5

SUPPLEMENTARY READING......................................................................................................6SCHOOLS........................................................................................................................................6POST-SCHOOL EDUCATION.....................................................................................................10

UNIT 2................................................................................................................................17

IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH..................................................................................................17MUSCLE BINDS...........................................................................................................................17

SUPPLEMENTARY READING....................................................................................................21HEALTH AND ILLNESS.............................................................................................................21

UNIT 3................................................................................................................................24

LANGUAGE, GENDER AND SOCIAL LIFE.............................................................................24THE MORALS OF GOSSIP..........................................................................................................24

DON’T TALK, LISTEN!.................................................................................................................27

SUPPLEMENTARY READING....................................................................................................35GENDER AND LANGUAGE.......................................................................................................35

UNIT 4................................................................................................................................48

SOCIETY..........................................................................................................................................48THE UPPER CLASS.....................................................................................................................48

JOBS AND EMPLOYMENT POLICIES......................................................................................50

SOCIAL SECURITY.......................................................................................................................52

UNIT 5................................................................................................................................58

LAW..................................................................................................................................................58LAW AND ORDER.......................................................................................................................58

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT........................................................................................................61

SUPPLEMENTARY READING....................................................................................................64CIVIL LAW AND PROCEDURE.................................................................................................64CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS..................................................................................66

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CODE OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE...........................................................................69

UNIT 6................................................................................................................................93

ECONOMY.......................................................................................................................................93TAXATION AND TAX SYSTEMS.............................................................................................93

TAX EVASION. BRIBERY. CORRUPTION...............................................................................95

UNIT 7..............................................................................................................................103

POLITICS.......................................................................................................................................103THE GOVERNMENT.................................................................................................................103THE PARLIAMENT...................................................................................................................105

TABLE OF CONTENTS...................................................................................................115

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