(The passages are from Effective Writing: from paragraph up by Kenkyusha and Oshima and Hogue’s Writing Academic English by Longman.)
Determine the topic (what is the passage about?), main idea, and organization of each passage below.
1.
Studying in college is quite different from studying in high school.College classes meet only once a week, and the content is often far more difficult than anything the students have done before. Although there may be weekly homework, there are few quizzes or regular tests, so that almost everything depends on the final test. Most professors place less emphasis on the memorization of facts than on how the student analyzes those facts. Just doing the homework the teacher assigns and remembering what the teacher says are no longer enough—students need to make an effort on their own to build their knowledge or develop their skills. This issue of initiative—that students must now take a major part of the responsibility for their own learning—is perhaps the biggest difference of all.
Topic ______
Main Idea ______
Organization: contrast + enumeration
Difference 1 ______
Difference 2 ______
Difference 3 ______
Difference 4 ______
Difference 5 ______
2.
Activities give students an opportunity to express themselves in group work, to act as leaders and members of teams. When they participate in discussions, they become less self-conscious, more confident of their own abilities and ideas. Moreover, students enjoy working on projects, such as decorating for dances or putting on political campaigns. They find a great deal of satisfaction in doing their jobs well, and all of this serves its purpose in preparing them for assuming responsibility in adult life. For these reasons, every student should participate in at least one extracurricular activity.
3.
Life is becoming harder and harder for cigarette smokers in the United States. For one thing, the cost of smoking is going up. The government finds that raising the cigarette tax is a relatively easy way to get more money. Because of the greater health risk for smokers, they frequently must pay more for health and life insurance.But the problems smokers face are not limited to money. Finding a place to smoke, apart from their own homes or cars, can be an even greater difficulty. Many restaurants do not permit smoking. Smoking on buses and in taxicabs is out, and now all smoking on commercial airline flights within the United States is prohibited. Smokers cannot light up at their desks anymore, either—in many cases they must leave the building and smoke outside. This is not a bad way to take a break on a pleasant spring day, but most people do not seem to enjoy it on rainy days or in the cold of winter. These days American smokers need great determination to continue their habit.
4.
Synonyms, words that have the same basic meaning, do not always have the same emotional meaning. For example, the words stingy and frugal both mean “careful with money.” However, calling someone stingy is an insult, but calling someone frugal is a compliment. Similarly, a person wants to be slender but not skinny, aggressive but not pushy. Therefore, you should be careful in choosing words because many so-called synonyms are not really synonymous at all.
noun / verb / adjective, adverb / otherscompliment
insult / so-called
1. used to show that you do not think that the word or phrase that is being used to describe something isappropriate( )
2. a remark or an action that is said or done in order to offend somebody( )
3. a remark that expresses praise or admiration of somebody( )
His comments were seen as an insult to the president.
‘You understand the problem because you’re so much older.’ ‘I’ll take that as a compliment!’
How have these so-called improvements helped the local community?
5.
By the year 2009, a vaccine against the common cold will have been developed. By the same year, the first human will have been successfully cloned. By the year 2014, parents will be able to create designer children. Genetic therapy will be able to manipulate genes for abilities, intelligence, and hair, eye, and skin color. By 2020, most diseases will be able to be diagnosed and treated at home, and by 2030, cancer and heart disease will have been wiped out. These are just a few examples of the medical miracles that are expected in the next few decades.
noun / verb / adjective, adverb / othersdecade / clone
diagnose
manipulate / designer child
wipe out
1. a period of ten years, especially a period such as 1910–1919 or 1990–1999( )
2. to control or use something in a skilful way( )
3. (= a designer baby) a baby that is born from an embryo which was selected from a number of embryos produced using IVF, for example because the parents want a baby that can provide cells to treat a brother’s or sister’s medical condition( )
4. [often passive] to destroy or remove somebody or something completely( )
5. to say exactly what an illness or the cause of a problem is( )
6. to produce an exact copy of an animal or a plant from its cells( )
A team from the UK were the first to successfully clone an animal.
Computers are very efficient at manipulating information.
The test is used to diagnose a variety of diseases.
Whole villages were wiped out by the earthquake.
Prices have risen sharply in the last decade.
6.
When the first Europeans came to the North American continent, they encountered the completely new cultures of the Native American peoples of North America. Native Americans, who had highly developed cultures in many respects, must have been as curious about the strange European manners and customs as the Europeans were curious about them. As always happens when two or more cultures come into contact, there was a cultural exchange. Native Americans adopted some of the Europeans’ ways, and the Europeans adopted some of their ways. As a result, Native Americans have made many valuable contributions to modern U.S. culture, particularly in the areas of language, art, food, and government.
First of all, Native Americans left a permanent mark on the English language. The early English-speaking settlers borrowed from several different Native American languages words for places in this new land. All across the country are cities, towns, rivers, and states with Native American names. For example, the states of Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, and Alabama are named after Native American tribes, as are the cities of Chicago, Miami, and Spokane. In addition to place names, English adopted from various Native American languages the words for animals and plants found in the Americas. Chipmunk, moose, raccoon, skunk, tobacco, and squash are just a few examples.
Although the vocabulary of English is the area that shows the most Native American influence, it is not the only area of U.S. culture that has been shaped by contact with Native Americans. Art is another area of important Native American contributions. Wool rugs woven by women of the Navajo tribe in Arizona and New Mexico are highly valued works of art in the United States. Native American jewelry made from silver and turquoise is also very popular and very expensive. Especially in the western and southwestern regions of the United States, native crafts such as pottery, leather products, and beadwork can be found in many homes. Indeed, native art and handicrafts are a treasured part of U.S. culture.
In addition to language and art, agriculture is another area in which Native Americans had a great and lasting influence on the peoples who arrived here from Europe, Africa, and Asia. Being skilled farmers, the Native Americans of North America taught the newcomers many things about farming techniques and crops. Every U.S. schoolchild has heard the story of how Native Americans taught the first settlers to place a dead fish in a planting hole to provide fertilizer for the growing plant. Furthermore, they taught the settlers irrigation methods and crop rotation. Many of the foods people in the United States eat today were introduced to the Europeans by Native Americans. For example, corn and chocolate were unknown in Europe. Now they are staples in the U.S. diet
Finally, it may surprise some people to learn that citizens of the United Statesare also indebted to the native people for our form of government. The Iroquois, who were an extremely large tribe with many branches called “nations,” haddeveloped a highly sophisticated system of government to settle disputes that arose between the various branches. Five of the nations had joined together in a confederation called “The League of the Iroquois.” Under the league, each nation was autonomous in running its own internal affairs, but the nations acted as a unit when dealing with outsiders. The league kept the Iroquois from fighting among themselves and was also valuable in diplomatic relations with other tribes. When the 13 colonies wereconsidering what kind of government to establish after they had won their independence from Britain, someone suggested that they use a system similar to that of the League of the Iroquois. Under this system, each colony or future state would be autonomous in managing its own affairs but would join forces with the other states to deal with matters that concerned them all. This is exactly what happened. As a result, the present form of government of the United Statescan be traced directly back to a Native American model.
In conclusion, we can easily see from these few examples the extent of Native American influence on our language, our art forms, our eating habits, and our government. The people of the United States are deeply indebted to Native Americans for their contributions to U.S. culture.
(Oshima and Hogue. 2006. Writing Academic English. fourth edition. Longman. pp. 58-59)
noun / verb / adjective, adverb / otherscraft
fertilizer
irrigation
pottery
staple
tribe / autonomous
sophisticated / be indebted to
trace back to
1. (of a machine, system, etc.) clever and complicated in the way that it works or is presented( )
2. something produced skillfully by hand, for example, a plate or a piece of furniture( )
3. a basic type of food that is used a lot( )
4. [formal] grateful to somebody for helping you( )
5. pots, dishes, etc. made with clay that is baked in an oven, especially when they are made by hand( )
6. (of a country, a region or an organization) able to govern itself or control its own affairs( )
7. to find the origin or cause of something ( )
8. a substance added to soil to make plants grow more successfully( )
9. the supplying of water to an area of land through pipes or channels so that crops will grow( )
traditional crafts like basket-weaving
Fertilizer encourages weeds as well as crops to grow, so the increasing use of fertilizer promotes the increasing use of selective herbicides.
major irrigation projects
Native American pottery
Aid workers helped distribute corn, milk and other staples.
Galicia is an autonomous region of Spain.
highly sophisticated computer systems
I am deeply indebted to my family for all their help.
She could trace her family tree back to the 16th century.
7.
Moving to a new country can be an exciting, even exhilarating experience. In a new environment, you somehow feel more alive: seeing new sights, eating new food, hearing the foreign sounds of a new language, and feeling a different climate against your skin stimulate your senses as never before. Soon, however, this sensory bombardment becomes sensory overload. Suddenly, new experiences seem stressful rather than stimulating, and delight turns into discomfort. This is the phenomenon known as culture shock. Culture shock is more than jet lag or homesickness, and it affects nearly everyone who enters a new culture—tourists, business travelers, diplomats, and students alike. Although not everyone experiences culture shock in exactly the same way, many experts agree that it has roughly five stages.
In the first stage, you are excited by your new environment. You experience some simple difficulties such as trying to use the telephone or public transportation, but you consider that you can quickly overcomethese small challenges. Your feelings about the new culture are positive, so you are eager to make contact with people and to try new foods.
Sooner or later, differences in behavior and customs become more noticeable to you. This is the second stage of culture shock. Because you do not know the social customs of the new culture, you may find it difficult to make friends. For instance, you do not understand how to make “small talk,” so it is hard to carry on a casual, get-acquainted conversation. One day in the school cafeteria, you overhear a conversation. You understand all the words, but you do not understand the meaning. Why is everyone laughing? Are they laughing at you or at some joke that you did not understand? Also, you aren’t always sure how to act while shopping. Is this store self-service, or should you wait for a clerk to assist you? If you buy a sweater in the wrong size, can you exchange it? These are not minor challenges; they are major frustrations.
In the third stage, you no longer have positive feelings about the new culture. You feel that you have made a mistake in coming here. Making friends hasn’t been easy, so you begin to feel lonely and isolated. Now you want to be with familiar people and eat familiar food. You begin to spend most of your free time with students from your home country, and you eat in restaurants that serve your native food. In fact, food becomes an obsession, and you spend a lot of time planning, shopping for, and cooking food from home.
You know that you are in the fourth stage of culture shock when you have negative feelings about almost everything. In this stage, you actively reject the new culture. You become critical, suspicious, and irritable. You believe that people are unfriendly, that your landlord is trying to cheat you, that your teachers do not like you, and that the food is making you sick. In fact, you may actually develop stomachaches, headaches, sleeplessness, lethargy, or other physical symptoms
Finally, you reach the fifth stage. As your language skills improve, you begin to have some success in meeting people and in negotiating situations. You are able to exchange the sweater that was too small, and you can successfully chat about the weather with a stranger on the bus. Your self-confidence grows. After realizing that you cannot change your surroundings, you begin to accept the differences andtolerate them. For instance, the food will never be as tasty as the food in your home country, but you are now able to eat and sometimes even enjoy many dishes. You may not like the way some people in your host country dress or behave in public, but you do not regard their clothes and behavior as wrong—just different.
To sum up, culture shock is a very real phenomenon that has been studied for more than 30 years by psychologists and anthropologists. Its five phases are (1) positive feelings toward the new culture, (2) awareness of small differences, (3) growing discomfort and need for contact with home culture, (4) negative feelings, and (5) acceptance and adjustment. Symptoms may vary, and not all people experience all five phases. In the end, however, people who suffer culture shock are stronger from having overcome the difficulties and frustrations of adapting to life in a new land.
noun / verb / adjective, adverb / othersanthropologist
bombardment
jet lag
landlord
lethargy
obsession
overload
small talk
symptom / exhilarating
irritable
noticeable
1. polite friendly conversation about ordinary or unimportant subjects, especially at social occasions( )
2. a person or company from whom you rent a room, a house, an office, etc.( )
3. very exciting and enjoyable( )
4. too much of something ( )
5. a continuous attack on a place by big guns and bombs( )
6. a person who studies anthropology (=the study of the human race, especially of its origins, development, customs and beliefs)( )
7. a change in your body or mind that shows that you are not healthy( )
8. getting annoyed easily; showing your anger( )
9. a person or thing that somebody thinks about too much( )
10. the state of not having any energy or enthusiasm for doing things( )
11. easy to see or notice; clear or definite( )
12. the feeling of being tired and slightly confused after a long plane journey, especially when there is a big difference in the time at the place you leave and that at the place you arrive in( )
The bombardment continued for a terrible nine hours.
I’m suffering from jet lag, but I’ll feel better after a good night’s sleep.
Under that lease, it is required to pay rents to the landlord.
New mothers often complain of lethargy and mild depression.
Fitness has become an obsession with him.
We stood around making small talk.
Symptoms include a headache and sore throat.
In these days of technological change we all suffer from information overload.
My first parachute jump was an exhilarating experience.
Since he quit smoking, he’s been really irritable.
This effect is particularly noticeable in younger patients.
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