Too Many or Too Few?
SECTION ONE
READING, WRITING, LISTENING AND INTERPRETING
UNIT ONE
The Way We Live Now
LEAD-IN
A. Look at the following statements drawn from statistics about Britain.
Are you surprised by any of the statements?
How does the situation in Britain compare with that in your country?
1. The population of Britain was 60 million in 2005.
2. Life expectancy at birth is now 72 for men and 78 for women.
3. Britain has more people aged over 60 than any other European nation.
4. 63% of homes are owner-occupied, the number of people owing their own homes has almost doubled and 10% of the population live alone.
5. Most people work 35-40 hours in a five-day week, with over 10% of the workforce being self-employed.
6. Women comprise 43% of the workforce and the percentage of women working outside the home is more than 50%.
7. 946,000 people left Britain and 1.1 million came to stay.
8. The non-white population is 2.4 million.
9. Children start school at the age of 5 and must stay at school until the age of 16.
10. Weekly attendance at Church of England services is 1.1. million and there are 1.5 million Muslims in the UK.
11. Cars, motorcycles and taxis account for 83% of all journeys.
uses and coaches take less than 10% of all passengers, and trains only 7%.
12. The major killer diseases in Britain are heart and cancer.
LIFE IN THE 90s
What was life in the later part of the 20th century like? What were people's priorities in the northern and southern hemispheres? Discuss your ideas before looking through the following.
| socialism | to be uncaring | to be environmentally friendly |
| capitalism | the rat race | the rat race living |
| consumerism | a/the welfare state | the quality of life |
| to look after number one | an image | the way of life |
| to opt out of | a status symbol | the cost of living |
| the haves and the have-nots | a lifestyle | |
| to be materialistic | to 'go green' |
Choose a word or phrase from the above vocabulary bank, changing the form where necessary, to complete the following text. What features of the 90s XX century seem to you analogous with those of the first decade of the XXI century?
How was life in the 90s different from life in the 80s? Certainly in Europe, life has changed a great deal in recent years. We have seen the end of the communist states, but this does not automatically mean that (1) ..... has triumphed. Most of the Eastern European countries are trying not to hold on to their (2).....principles but still believe in the (3).........., where government supports the old, sick and unemployed.
In Western Europe, the USA and Japan, the 80s were dominated by money and the rise of the individual. Those of us with money have become even more greedy and (4) ...... But at the same time we have seen a growing division between the (5) ..... and (6)......The attitude towards those people who cannot take part in the consumer boom is very often an (7) .....one. The philosophy of the 80s seems to have been rather self-centred, a case of (8) ..................... There are some who have reacted against this kind of society and have decided to (9) ........ . They have decided that their (10)..... of (11)…. is more important than their (12).....of (13)... . They have chosen to live more simply and not to worry about their (14) .... ,
nor about acquiring the latest (15)...........This kind of (16).....became more
common in the 90s.
One change which has been noticeable in our (17).....of (18)
is our awareness of environmental problems and how these affect our
daily life. Many consumers are (19) '..... ....' and only buying (20).....products. Is this reflecting real concern or is it just another fashion?
Too Many or Too Few?
The study of the population is known as demography. The following report is about the effects of demographic changes on society. Read each paragraph and write a brief heading for it.
EXAMPLE Paragraph 1 The relationship between demography and politics.
1. Demography, the size of population, the speed at which it changes and its age structure, is an important factor in determining how a country's economy will perform and what economic policies a government should pursue,
2. For example, in a country where the population is growing very fast, the economy has to grow quickly if the income per head is not to fall. In a country like South Africa, where the population is rising by about 2.7 per cent a year, politicians are worried about generating enough extra national income to at least match that level of increase. In Britain, however, the population has grown by less than 2 per cent over the last 10 years. Therefore almost all the economic growth in Britain during that time has meant higher average income per head, even if the distribution of income is unequal.
3. It is also important to know how many of the people in the total population will be economically active. Some will be children and therefore too young to work. Some will be elderly and will have retired. It is only the group in the middle - say between the ages of 16 and 60 or 65 - who are available for work.
4. The very young, schoolchildren, students and people who have retired are known as the «dependent» population, because they depend on other people or the state for their income.
5. The relationship between the number of dependent people hose who are of working age is known as the «dependency ratio»:
the greater the proportion of dependent people, the higher the ratio. This ratio is sometimes referred to as the «welfare burden»; it increases if more people stay on at school or go to college. It will also increase if people retire earlier and live for longer after they have retired.
6. Over the last 50 years, the dependency ratio in Britain has stayed roughly the same: as a percentage of the population of working age, the dependent population has been between 55 and 65 per cent.
7. But people are now living longer. In 1931, a man's life expectancy was 60. Now it is 73 in Britain. So there will be more old people who will need pensions provided for them through income taxes paid by those at work.
8. The dependency ratio is not a completely accurate measure of how many non-working people need to be supported by those with jobs. After all, not every person between 16 and 65 has paid employment. In many societies it is frowned upon for married women -particularly those with young children - to have jobs.
9. Attitudes have changed in recent years. Yet the «participation rate» - the proportion of women of working age who do go out to work - is still much lower than that of men. 94 per cent of British men aged 25 to 44 are in the labour force; the proportion of women is 72 per cent. And only one woman in eight with a child under five years old has a full-time job.