Step 3 QUESTIONS
TEXT 1: Self-help books could ruin your life!
Look at the source: Is the text fact or fiction? Justify
Concentrate on the introduction, paragraphs 1 & 2 and answer (You can quote the text when necessary)
1)Say what self-help books promise: They promise everything/They promise to improve your life in any number of ways.
2)Explain why they are successful.They sell in their millions.
3)Find 4 examples of how self-help books can help you.1) secrets of daily joy 2) lasting fulfilment 3) career success 4) emotional healing
4)The figures that are quoted in paragraph 2 show what about the self-help books business.The self-help market is a booming industry.
Concentrate on paragraphs 3 & 4 and answer (You can quote the text when necessary)
5)Quote the sentence that suggests self-help books fail to help you.“Yet the very fact that there are so many self-help books on the market is likely to be a sign that none of them is particularly effective.”
6)Say what shows that they don’t bring solutions to people’s problems.The huge number of books shows that lots of things remain to be discussed. As there are lots of books available, we can guess that none has brought definite solution to people’s problems.
7)Explain what we know from statistics about a reader who buys a self-help book.They will buy another one in 18 months.
8)Explain what these statistics prove. Statistics show that people buy another book on the same subject/topic after 18 months, which shows that they are not satisfied with the one they had bought.
9)Say whether this is good news or bad news for the book business.It is good news because more people buy books.
Concentrate on the end on the text and answer (You can quote the text when necessary)
10)Find the two dangers that may result from reading self-help books, in Steve’s opinion.
The two dangers are blaming yourself and avoiding treatments that work.
They are not as reliable or trustworthy as science or medicine. The advice has not been tested scientifically.
11)Explain what kind of books people should also read to find help. People should read scientific studies.
RECAP
Self-help books can be found everywhere online or in your local bookshop and they promise to make you feel better and improve your life, to reveal secrets. They are best sellers even during an economic downturn. In Britain, it is estimated that the cult of self-help has earned publishers some £60 million in the past five years whereas in the USA, the self-help market is worth more than $10 billion (£6 billion) a year. People keep buying self-help books, which means that they didn’t work out how to change their lives, and they didn’t find the answers they were looking for in the books they bought. Self-help solutions can be dangerous because they are not scientific, and they can’t replace medical treatment. They also make the reader feel guilty because he can’t achieve the goals described in the books, so a self-help reader might feel even worse afterwards.
TEXT 2: A YOUNG WOMAN’S RESOLUTIONS
Look at the source: Is the text fact or fiction? Justify
1)Find out about the woman’s
-Relationship problems (2 problems) : Quote the text to justify
Problems with men/love life problems: “Fall for any of the following:...... people with girlfriends or wives, misogynists...” “sulk about having no boyfriend”
Relationship problems with others: “Get annoyed with Mum, Una Alconbury or Perpetua.”
-Money problem: Quote the text. She spends too much money: “Waste money on...... exotic underwear.” “Spend more than earn”.
-Health problems (2 problems) : Quote the text.
She has bad health habits. “Stop smoking. Drink more.”
She should do more sports. “Go to gym three times a week not merely to buy a sandwich.”
-Looks (her opinion about herself) : Quote
She thinks that she is too fat. “Reduce circumference of thighs....”
2)In your opinion, find the three reasons that explain why Bridget is not happy.
She is not happy because she is still single, she spends more money than she has, and she focuses on her physical defects.
3)Explain why she failed to keep up with her good resolutions. (3 reasons)
She didn’t manage to keep up her good resolutions as she is interested in the wrong man, and she hasn’t solved her problem with food. She keeps seeing herself in a negative light.
4)Say how she hopes to find answers to her problems
She hopes she will find answers in a new self-help book.
DISCUSS THE LINKS BETWEEN TEXT 1 AND TEXT 2
Explain to what extent Bridget illustrates the sentence from text 1: Buying into the overblown claims such books make, he argues, can lead to you blaming yourself for failure when you don’t achieve the outcome you hoped for — and avoiding treatments that actually work.
Find a title that could work for both documents.
Bridget is the perfect example of the self-help reader who will blame herselffor failing to achieve her goals. She keepsrepeating the same mistakes even though she tries self-help techniques. She focuses on the negative things and not on the positive ones.
Title: Self-help is about hating yourself, Work on the real solutions,/ Stop making the same mistakes / Miracles don’t exist.