AII SEMINAR 3 Education – Answer Key Task 1 & 2 – based on class discussion Task 3 1 – B (neutral) 2 – C (use with care; a bit patronizing, i.e. “they cannot follow the instructions on an aspirin box.“) 3 – A (critical in a patronizing and offensive way) Task 4 a) 1. F… only Brazil. 2. T… illiteracy is a growing problem amongst Brazilian children 3. F… 3.5 million children are working when they should be in school 4. T… illiteracy is a problem for many adults as well. This makes it difficult to teach children 5. F… the government will give the family twenty-five reals b) 1. the government will give the family twenty-five reals a month 2. Statistics show that 76% of the children do not attend school 3. 16.1% of children ten to fourteen years old are working 4. The first solution to end child labor 5. (Lam & Daryea, 1999)… quote, year when the text was published 6. 3.5 million children are working when they should be in school c) 1. poor families, 2. read and write, (math – not mentioned in the text, but may be a valid suggestion in class) 3. 15-19, 10-14 4. children have to support their families 5. giving money to the families that send their children to school d) based on class discussion Comprehension Questions 1. What kinds of facilities do many schools in wealthy areas have? Bright classrooms, art and language labs, computers, gyms (paragraph 1), sports facilities and pools (4) 2. What is the condition of many schools in poor areas? Poor plumbing, lack of books and computers (1), bad structure (4) 3. According to Kozol, what is the cause of these differences in schools? Local property taxes as a main source of funding (2); local control (5) 4. What sources of funding do US school districts have? Washington (federal), state, & local property tax (5) 5. What do educational reformers want to change? Abolish property tax as a source of funds and replace it with a progressive income tax to be redistributed more evenly. (5) Listening Questions 1. Dennis has observed that in general, if parents have money and think that education is important, their children do well / do better in school. 2. Dennis taught at a school where the students came from very wide / varied / diverse / different backgrounds. 3. Dennis believes that having a computer at home helps the student do well / helps improve thinking skills / is beneficial. 4. According to Dennis, not all low-income children do badly / poorly in school, and not all wealthy children do well / succeed. Listening gap fill - tapescript I: Dennis, let me ask you a different question and that is, do you think that a child’s economic and maybe social background makes a difference in school performance? D: Yeah, you know, there is a pattern. The elementary school where I had most of my teaching experience and where I eventually became principal, was an interesting one, because it sat between two very different parts of this community. One part is a very wealthy neighborhood built around a world-class golf-course and then the other part of the community is low-income housing including a complex where families, where the mother has just been released from the local women’s prison, so you know, I really saw a wide economic and social range and I have seen low-income families that just do a great job of getting their kids to school and supporting them in their education. But, you know, I think the predictable cliché there is true. That those kids who are supported do better, kids whose parents value education do better. And you know, another big economic issue is technology. Access to computers. The kids who have multimedia computers at home, in their bedrooms, they just do better. With computers, there is a realization starting to develop, that it’s not just technological skills, but there are also some thinking skills that improve with being able to organize your information that way, you know. I: Yeah… D: Some of these kids can really turn out some outstanding work and the content has improved, too. Not just the presentation. So I think there are some real differences based on economic background and they just compound with each generation. That’s been my experience. I: Aha… D: But you know, there is no guarantee because you have all this support at home that you’re gonna do well, too. I mean I’ve seen some kids, pretty wealthy kids, just totally blow it and not be productive and not even stay in school. Or there are the cases where you’ve got, you know, one kid who does great and then the other sibling in the same environment is just totally, totally out of control. I: Does that happen? D: Well, it’s kind of like a movie cliché again. But, yeah, it does sometime happen. I: Speaking of families, do siblings usually perform at about the same level in school? D: Yeah, in families usually there tends to be a pattern, I think. Task 5 a) There’s one train from Prague which gets here at ten o’clock in the morning. That’s on weekdays, but at/on the weekend there isn’t any. But on Saturday there is one bus. It arrives at five thirty. But in summer it is better. b) 1) 1980-1990 – from nineteen eighty to nineteen ninety 2) the 1970s – the nineteen seventies 3) -12°C – twelve degrees below zero; minus twelve degrees 4) 437.56 – 437 point five six; 437 and fifty-six (one) hundredths – less used 5) 43,756 – forty three thousand, seven hundred and fifty six 6) 50% – fifty per cent; one half 7) tel. # 540 776 – five - four - oh (zero) - seven - seven (or double seven) - six 8) (the year) 1805 – eighteen oh five; eighteen hundred and five 9) 1,975 – one thousand, nine hundred and seventy-five 10) 0.25 – nought (Br.) / zero point two (not twenty) five; one quarter – less used 11) 3^rd February – February the third / (the) third of February 12) (date) 3.2.2003 – (same as 11, plus two thousand (and) three) 13) 2/3 – two-thirds 14) 7/9 – seven-ninths / seven over nine 15) $9,000,000,000 – nine billion (U.S.), nine thousand million, nine milliard (Europe) 16) (the year) 1600 – sixteen hundred 17) (a football match) 1-0 – one-nil c) 1) I could see the huge crowd. There were some sixty thousands people. 2) The exact population of that country is three million, five hundred and sixty thousand. 3) My phone number is five three four, oh (zero) nine two. 4) I was born on the twenty-first of March, nineteen eighty-six. 5) I got forty-one out of fifty in/on my test. 6) She´s one in a hundred. 7) There were hundreds of cars on the roads. 8) We met on Friday afternoon.