Английский язык для специальных и академических целей: Международные отношения и зарубежное регионоведение. Часть 1 - [31]

Now I am not so sure.

Notes

1. In mid-September 2012, during the presidential election campaign, a video surfaced of Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, speaking before a group of supporters in which he stated that 47 percent of the nation pays no income tax, are dependent on the federal government, see themselves as victims, and will support President Obama unconditionally. Romney went on to say: “And so my job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” After facing criticism about the tone and accuracy of these comments, he at first characterized them as “inelegantly stated”, then a couple of weeks later commented: “I said something that's just completely wrong.” Exit polls published following the election showed that voters never saw Romney as someone who cared about people like them.

2. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 — December 21, 1940) was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigmatic writings of the Jazz Age. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the “Lost Generation” of the 1920s.

3. The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession for the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age

Unit II. US: from Democracy to Empire?

Unit II. US: from Democracy to Empire?

or the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream.

4. Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 is a 2012 book by political scientist and W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Charles Murray. The book describes what the author sees as the economic divideand moral decline of white Americans that has occurred since 1960. The author focuses on white Americans in order to make it clear that the decline he describes was not being experienced solely by minorities, whom he brings into his argument in the last few chapters of the book.

COMPREHENSION ASSIGNMENTS

A. In pairs, discuss how you understand the phrases/clauses below. If still in doubt, discuss the phrases as a class.

1. ... he has pulled off an astonishing triple.

2. At the age of 42, he is worth an estimated $2.4 billion. Way to go!

3. . an unequal contest between “the 1 percent” and the “47 percent” .

4. But what if that tradeoff no longer exists?

5. This ought to be grist for the mill for American conservatives.

6. . Republicans have flunked the challenge.

7. . the left favors the line, the right the ladder.

8. The American Dream has become a nightmare of social stasis.

9. . problems that used to be disproportionately associated with African-American communities are now endemic in the trailer parks and subprime slums inhabited by poor whites.

10. But to European eyes, this is also a familiar story of poverty traps created by well-intentioned welfare programs.

B. Answer the questions on the text.

1. What does Elon Musk's story illustrate?

2. How is wealth distributed in the US?

3. Why are Americans more tolerant of inequality than Europeans?

4. Does inequality directly affect social mobility?

5. What, according to Niall Ferguson, is the difference between the “liberal” and the “conservative” approaches to tackling inequality?

6. How is the lack of social mobility in the American society nowadays illustrated in the book Coming Apart by Charles Murrey?

7. What, according to the article, are the major reasons for the declining social mobility in the US?

8. What do the data concerning Harvard enrollments indicate?

Speak Up

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Why, in your view, is the article entitled The End of the American Dream?

2. Do you share Niall Ferguson's opinion about poverty traps created by welfare programmes?

3. How does this tally (согласуется) with the fact that the countries with the highest social mobility are Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Canada, i.e. welfare states?

4. What do you think might be the outcomes of the US becoming a less meritocratic society?

FOLLOW-UP

Make a three-minute statement on

a) problems in the US education system today

b) modern American society

c) social mobility in the country whose language you study

Use texts from the Reader, readings that you find yourself, and the video in Listening 2.

Compile a list of Topical Vocabulary necessary to speak on the issue (to be shared in class).

VOCABULARY PRACTICE 2

Ex. 4. a) find words in the text to match the definitions below; reproduce the context they are used in;

b) give their synonyms and antonyms;