Unit 4 — WE ARE A FAMILY › Reading and writing
Reading and writing : Exploring the concepts of friendship, love, patriotism, generosity, courage
- تعريف مفاهيم مثل friendship, love, patriotism, generosity, courage بعبارتك أنت، مع مثال يوضّحها
- تتبّع خطّة محاضرة بأدوات الترتيب (First, Then, After that, Finally)، واستنتاج بنية نصّ لا تحمل أدوات ربط
- التمييز بين الواقعة والرأي (fact, opinion)، وبين سؤال الاستخراج وسؤال الاستنتاج
- كتابة صفحة أسئلة شائعة (FAQ) تعرّف ثلاثة من هذه المفاهيم
- بنية الفقرة: جملة الفكرة (topic sentence) وجمل الدعم
- أدوات الترتيب (first, then, after that, finally)
- أسماء المشاعر والفضائل: friendship, honesty, generosity, kindness
1. Before reading — the degrees of friendship
2. A lecture on friendship
How do we make friends? Some people seem to find it easy. They have lots of friends. Other people seem to find it difficult. Why? What is the secret of making friends? First, I will talk about two words that are often used together – friends and acquaintances. Then I will identify the key difference between the two words. After that, I'm going to talk about how an acquaintance can become a friend. Finally, I will give you a list of characteristics that people with lots of friends have in common. First, we must understand the difference between friends and acquaintances. Acquaintances are people we know. We know them from the clubs we go to, from the places where we work or from our local neighbourhood. We meet them on family occasions. We see them around in the high school playground and we say 'hello, how are you?' But there is a big difference between an acquaintance and a friend. What is the key difference? It is simply this. Friends are people we like a lot. Perhaps we don't like everything about them, but we feel positive about most of their characteristics. So what makes us like an acquaintance? What makes us like someone so much that he or she becomes a friend? In English, we talk about 'making friends'. This suggests that you have to do something positive. It is not always enough just to be yourself. You sometimes have to make yourself more likeable. It is possible to change your behaviour or your attitude, to become more likeable. But what should you change? Ask yourself these questions. What do you like about other people? What do you dislike? Or to put it in another way, would you like to be your own friend? Look at the handout I have given you. As you can see, there is a list of statements. Psychologists suggest likeable people can answer yes – honestly – to most or all of these statements. First statement, 'I am independent'. This means that you live your own life. You don't rely on other people to help you out all the time. Second statement, 'I am positive'. This means that you have an optimistic attitude to life. You do not expect things to go wrong, and even when they do, you do not give up. 'Honest and reliable' means that people can trust you – they can entrust you with money and things. They can also trust you to do things when you promise to do them. 'I am considerate.' This means you consider other people. You think about their feelings, perhaps more than about your own. Statement 5 is interesting: 'I am available'. This means that you are always ready to help when a friend needs you. Finally, 'I am supportive'. Of course, this comes from the verb support, meaning that you help people rather than criticise them. So, to sum up, likeable people make friends easily. Are you a likeable person? Work through the statements on the handout and tick those which apply to you. Check your answers with someone who knows you well. If you have ticked the 6 statements you are very likeable, but if you ticked fewer than 6 then you need to change something about your behaviour. Adapted from Skills in English, Level 3
Task 1 — Order the notes A-D as they occur in the lecture: A. How to make friends · B. Characteristics of likeable people · C. Friends and acquaintances · D. Difference between friends and acquaintances. Which link words announce them?Task 1 — Order the notes A-D as they occur in the lecture: A. How to make friends · B. Characteristics of likeable people · C. Friends and acquaintances · D. Difference between friends and acquaintances. Which link words announce them?رتّب العناوين الأربعة بحسب ورودها في المحاضرة، وحدّد أدوات الربط التي تعلنها.
| Order | Note | The link word that announces it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | C — Friends and acquaintances | First, I will talk about two words… |
| 2 | D — Difference between friends and acquaintances | Then I will identify the key difference… |
| 3 | A — How to make friends | After that, I'm going to talk about… |
| 4 | B — Characteristics of likeable people | Finally, I will give you a list… |
The four link words — First, Then, After that, Finally — give the plan in the introduction: they say how many parts there are and in which order they come. That is why you can restore the introduction from the notes alone: « Today, I'm going to talk about friends and acquaintances. First… »
Task 2 — Match the six statements with their definitions: A. people can trust me · B. I don't rely on other people to help me all the time · C. I am always ready to help when a friend needs me · D. I have an optimistic attitude to life · E. I help people rather than criticize them · F. I think about the feelings of other people.Task 2 — Match the six statements with their definitions: A. people can trust me · B. I don't rely on other people to help me all the time · C. I am always ready to help when a friend needs me · D. I have an optimistic attitude to life · E. I help people rather than criticize them · F. I think about the feelings of other people.طابق بين الصفات الستّ وتعريفاتها كما شرحتها المحاضرة.
| I'm … | It means that … |
|---|---|
| independent | B — I don't rely on other people to help me all the time. |
| positive | D — I have an optimistic attitude to life. |
| honest and reliable | A — people can trust me. |
| considerate | F — I think about the feelings of other people. |
| available | C — I am always ready to help when a friend needs me. |
| supportive | E — I help people rather than criticize them. |
These six adjectives are the values the lecture associates with friendship: independence, optimism, honesty and reliability, consideration, availability, support.
A. A recent analysis shows that people who do not have affinities can't become friends. The reason for this is that everyone is attracted to a person that resembles him or her most. B. The best way to make friends is to change your behaviour in order to become more likeable. To do this, you have to do some self-analysis. C. You can't change your behaviour – just be yourself. Analysis proves that making friends is natural. Friends should like you for what you are and not for what you look like.
Task 3 — the best summaryTask 3 — the best summaryالملخّص الأنسب، وسبب اختياره.
B. The lecture says it twice: « You sometimes have to make yourself more likeable » and « It is possible to change your behaviour or your attitude ». And it asks you to work through the statements yourself — that is the self-analysis of summary B. A speaks of affinities and resemblance: the lecture never mentions them. C says the opposite of the lecture: for the lecturer, being yourself is « not always enough ». An inference must follow from what is said, not from what we would like to hear.
3. A statement whose plan is not announced
The organisational pattern of a talk or a text is sometimes not signalled by link words. In that case you must reason logically: find the relationship in meaning between the sentences and between the paragraphs. A public statement has a clear shape all the same: an introduction that announces what will be said, body paragraphs that develop it one idea at a time, and a conclusion that closes it. In « What I have lived for », Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) says what passions have governed his life.
Task 4 — Here is the subject of each of the six paragraphs, in disorder. Put them in the order of a coherent public statement — introduction, three body paragraphs, conclusion. One paragraph is irrelevant. A. the search for knowledge · B. the three passions that have governed a life: love, knowledge, and pity for the suffering of mankind · C. pity: famine, torture, loneliness and poverty, and the powerlessness to cure them · D. the pride felt when the national anthem of one's country is played · E. a life worth living, one the author would gladly live again · F. the search for love: for the joy it gives, against loneliness, and for the vision it opens.Task 4 — Here is the subject of each of the six paragraphs, in disorder. Put them in the order of a coherent public statement — introduction, three body paragraphs, conclusion. One paragraph is irrelevant. A. the search for knowledge · B. the three passions that have governed a life: love, knowledge, and pity for the suffering of mankind · C. pity: famine, torture, loneliness and poverty, and the powerlessness to cure them · D. the pride felt when the national anthem of one's country is played · E. a life worth living, one the author would gladly live again · F. the search for love: for the joy it gives, against loneliness, and for the vision it opens.رتّب الفقرات الستّ في إعلان متماسك: مقدّمة، ثلاث فقرات، خاتمة. وفقرة واحدة دخيلة.
| Place | Paragraph |
|---|---|
| Introduction | B — the three passions: love, knowledge, pity |
| §1 | F — the search for love |
| §2 | A — the search for knowledge |
| §3 | C — pity for the suffering of mankind |
| Conclusion | E — a life worth living |
| irrelevant | D — pride at the national anthem |
How can you know, with no link word to help? The introduction (B) names the three passions in order — love, knowledge, pity — and the three body paragraphs take them up in that same order. The conclusion (E) looks back on the whole life. D is the intruder: pride in a national anthem is not one of the three passions announced. The meaning alone gives the structure.
4. Facts, opinions, and the two kinds of question
Texts contain statements of fact and statements of opinion. A fact can be checked: « James Thurber is a 20th-century American writer. » An opinion belongs to somebody: « He believes that traditional fairy tales can be adapted to modern times. » Opinions are often introduced by verbs such as believe, think, suppose — but not always, and then you have to work it out. Questions about a text are of two kinds as well. In reference questions, the answers are explicitly stated in the text. In inference questions, they are not: you deduce them from the facts and the reasoning of the text, in the light of your own experience — you « read between the lines ». And after reading, you respond: How are the opinions expressed? Do I agree with them, and why? Do I like this text? What lessons for life does it contain?
Task 5 — In the lecture, find a statement of fact and two statements of opinion. How do you recognise them?Task 5 — In the lecture, find a statement of fact and two statements of opinion. How do you recognise them?استخرج من المحاضرة واقعة ورأيين، وبيّن كيف عرفتهما.
- A fact. « Acquaintances are people we know… We see them around in the high school playground. » It is a definition anyone can check against the way the word is used.
- An opinion, announced as one. « Psychologists suggest likeable people can answer yes to most or all of these statements. » The verb suggest, and the people it is attributed to, say at once that this is an opinion.
- An opinion you must work out. « It is not always enough just to be yourself. You sometimes have to make yourself more likeable. » No verb introduces it: it is the lecturer's own view, and finding that out is an inference.
5. Write — an FAQ page on the concepts
An FAQ is a web page that includes the questions frequently asked about the content of a web site. Yours will ask what a word means: What is courage for you? — and answer it in your own words. Look at how the model below does it, twice: it first says what the word is not — the confusion everybody makes — then what it is, and it closes with an example that shows it. A definition without an example convinces nobody.
FAQ Q. What is courage for you? A. For me, courage is not killing Indians as John Wayne does in cowboy films. It means helping people in difficulty like, for example, jumping into a flooding river in winter to save a child calling for help… Q. What is pride? A. Pride does not consist in showing off, boasting and swaggering at the slightest occasion. For me, pride is basically a sense of dignity and self-respect. …
Create your own FAQ web page about three of the terms in the checklist — for instance friendship, generosity and patriotism. ① Write one question for each term: « What is friendship for you? » ② Answer it in three or four lines: what the word is not, what it is, and an example that shows it. ③ Bring a print-out of your page to class. Hold a panel discussion about the various definitions, and decide which ones deserve to be included in a classroom wallsheet.
A model answerA model answer
Q. What is friendship for you? A. For me, friendship is not having hundreds of names in a phone. An acquaintance is someone I know; a friend is someone I like a lot, even when I do not like everything about him. A friend is available: the week before my mock exam, my classmate Amine spent two evenings revising with me instead of watching the match. That is friendship. Q. What is generosity? A. Generosity does not consist in giving away what we do not need. For me, it is giving what we would like to keep — our time, our help, our place in the shade. My grandmother sends bread to the neighbours before she counts what is left for us. Q. What is patriotism? A. Patriotism is not shouting louder than everybody else when the national anthem is played. For me, it is doing one's work well, at home: the doctor who stays, the teacher who prepares her lessons, the student who does not cheat.
Check the model with the method: each answer says what the word is not, then what it is, then gives one example — and every example is a small scene, not a general idea.
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