Pre-reading task

1. Can you describe a time in your life when you were really hooked on a hobby?

2. Can you describe a time when you were overly enthusiastic about a new product coming on the market?

Reading

Read the article about different types of addicts and decide which person you think has the most serious problem.

Are You Hooked?

No one likes to admit they're an addict. They are sad creatures ruled by deadly substances such as tobacco or alcohol. But there are others less damaging to the health. Like it or not, large numbers of us are addicts. Addictions can be chemical (caffeine), emotional (shopping), physical (exercise) or downright strange ‑ such as picking your spots! You're the odd one out if you don't have at least one everyday addiction. What do you do when you feel under pressure, bored or depressed? Get lost in the world of TV? Go shopping? Eat one bar of chocolate after another?

Becci has been a chocoholic for ten years. 'I just get an urge for it ‑ a need,' says Becci. 'I really don't know why, it's just so delicious. People say that chocolate can make up for lost passion I don't know about that, but I love the way it melts in my mouth.' Every day, Becci gets through several bars of her favourite Cadbury's chocolate (the one with the soft caramel centre is the best). But it’s not only the bars she goes for – hot chocolate drinks and chocolate cakes are also essentials. Towards exam time, Becci feels she has to increase her intake to cope with all the work. 'If I get up late, I’ll have chocolate for breakfast, then more and more during the day. I am addicted. It's like smoking, I suppose, but I have no plans to give it up. If I like it so much, why should l?'

Addiction to exercise can ruin your life, Janine learnt to her cost. 'I was swimming at least fifty lengths a day, jogging to the gym and doing three aerobic classes a week. At home, I used an exercise bike and keep‑fit videos. My husband said that I didn't have time for him, and he was right. But I couldn't believe it when he left me. Finally, I came to my senses, I wanted to get fit but it all got out of hand and my addiction ruined my marriage. Now, I'm seeing a counsellor and gradually reducing the amount of exercise I do.'

Well‑known Member of Parliament Tony Benn, just can't live without his favourite drink. He has on average eighteen pints of tea a day and his addiction has raised concern about his health. When he collapsed recently, some people blamed his excessive tea drinking. Mr Benn has calculated that, over the years, he has drunk enough tea (around 300,000 gallons) to displace an ocean‑going liner. If he ever tried to stop, he would find it agonising.

Anne shopped for thirteen hours a day without leaving her living room she was addicted to TV shopping. When she got home from her job as a nightcare worker at 8.30 a.m., Anne would immediately tune into a satellite TV shopping channel and buy everything in sight. Her home was soon an Aladdin's cave of household goods and trendy clothes she didn't need. When her cash ran out, she stole money from the elderly patients in her care and was charged with theft. 'It seemed so easy,' she says. 'I didn't realise I'd become so addicted.’ Anne’s family have now removed her satellite receiver.

Task 1

Find words or phrases in the text with the following meanings:

1. the exception, the unusual person (para. 1);

2. a desire (para. 2);

3. to compensate (para. 2);

4. to change from solid to liquid (para. 2);

5. to destroy (para. 3);

6. to realise what is happening (para. 3);

7. to stop being under control (para. 3);

8. to make people worried (para. 4);

9. to fall down (para. 4);

10. too much (para. 4);

11. very difficult and painful (para. 4);

12. fashionable (para. 5);

13. to come to an end (para. 5).

Task 2

What advice would you give to the four addicts (and their families) in the article?

Task 3

Would you say you were addicted to anything?

Text 3

Pre-reading task

Read the statements and give pros and cons.

1. A person who sends 15 to 20 hours a day using a computer could be called an addict.

2. It's as easy to get addicted to the computer as it is to get addicted to nicotine.

3. Communicating with friends and family via a computer is cold and impersonal.

4. People become dependent on their computer to avoid work and social activities.

Reading

Read the text and answer the question:

Why is Internet addiction becoming more common?

Bill, a student at the University of Maryland, says, «I have been using the Internet for about a year. Now I spend most of the day on-line. I am trying to cut my hours, but I simply don' t have the strength to. I'm like an alcoholic who can' t control his habit." For years, people have been addicted to things like nicotine, gambling, or alcohol. However, now a new (1) high-tech addiction called Internet addiction is rapidly becoming the latest problem of the computer age.

College and university students, business people, and homemakers are just some of the people who are spending hours and hours in front of their computer screens. They are sending (2) e-mail, playing computer games, or entering (3) chat rooms where they can communicate with strangers all over the world on their computer.

At first, these individuals went on-line for work, study, or pleasure and spent one or two hours a day on their computer. However, the hours gradually increased. They began to (4) surt the Net for longer and longer periods of time.

Bill's (5) compulsiveness, his inability to stop thinking about his online activity, turned into a serious psychological problem. He gave up his friends, stopped playing basketball, and neglected his schoolwork. Instead he found (6) fulfillment by communication electronically with strangers.

Psychologists have become concerned about this growing problem. They feel that Internet addicts are avoiding the (7) intimacy that comes from live, non-electronic communication. Counselors worry that students will not go through the normal social (8) developmental (9) support groups, a special form of (10) therapy that is helping these students control their on-line habit.

Task 1

Find the word in the text that is similar in the meaning to the following and write the number in the blank.

__a. treatment of problems by talking about them

__b. technologically advanced

__c. periods of personal growth

__d. look for information on the Internet

__e. inability to control certain behavior

__f. an electronic way for individuals to send messages via the computer

__g. electronic discussion groups in which several people exchange written messages

__h. close personal relationships with others

__i. personal satisfaction

__j. people who meet to help each other with a problem they all share

Task 2

In what way can support groups be useful?

Task 3

Some psychologists have suggested that addictions begin as a habit, then move to a dependency, and finally end up as an addiction.

HABIT → DEPENDENCY → ADDICTION

1. Do you agree with this concept? Why or why not?

2. What factors may influence the change from habit to dependency and to addiction?

Final task

Organize your knowledge on the topic and present a report on one of the following points.

1. How does it happen that some of our attractions become addictions?

2. What are the most harmful addictions? Why?

3. The best way to win the war on drugs is to legalize them, isn’t it?

4. What helps people not to become addicted to anything?

5. What people are mostly subjected to drugs?

UNIT 3

NEIGHBOURS IN THE SKY

Almost every civilization that has kept a written history has recorded the sighting of strange objects and lights in the skies. Today, unexplained aerial phenomena are generally referred to as “unidentified flying objects” or flying saucers.

Text 1

Pre-reading task

Some people believe that Man’s progress on Earth has been watched by beings whose technological and mental developments make ours look primitive. What do you think?

Reading

Read the text quickly and answer the following questions.

1. Why was the name “flying saucer” chosen?

2. What is the significance of the following numbers in the text?

1) 1561; 2) 1,600; 3) 90 per cent; 4) 243.

Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO)

Descriptions of UFOs have ranged from glowing wheels, to colored balls of light, to cigar-, disk-, or crescent-shaped objects. One of the first well-documented UFO sightings occurred in 1561 in Nuremberg, Germany. A broadsheet published that year describes red, blue and black balls or plates, crosses, and tubes that appeared to battle each other in the sky over the city.

The term flying saucer was coined in 1947. A business-man named Kenneth Arnold told reporters that while flying a private airplane near Mount Rainier in Washington State he saw nine objects flying over the mountain in formation and at a speed of more than 1,600 miles (2,500 kilometers) per hour. Arnold described the objects as moving like “a saucers across the water”. After that first report, Arnold’s description was shortened and it soon became popular to call all UFOs flying saucers.

Early Days of UFO History.

The United States government has records of thousands of UFO sightings, including photos of alleged UFOs and inter-views with people who claim to have seen them. Since UFOs were considered a potential security risk, the report on these sightings was originally classified as secret. When the report was later declassified it showed that 90 percent of all UFO sightings could be easily explained. Most of the sightings turned out to be celestial objects, such as stars or bright planets like Venus, or atmospheric events such as auroras or meteors falling through the atmosphere. Many other sightings turned out to be such objects as weather balloons, satellites, aircraft lights, or formation of birds. Often these sightings were accompanied by unusual weather conditions.

Projects on UFOs.

In 1948 the United States Air Force began the government’s first official UFO panel, Project Sign, which studied 243 sightings. It was replaced by Project Grudge, which investigated another 244 sightings. In March 1952 the most ambitious of the UFO panels, Project Blue Book, was organized by the Air Force. The panel employed a number of scientists, including physicists, engineers, meteorologists, and an astronomer. Project Blue Book had three main goals: to explain all reported sightings of UFOs; to decide if UFOs posed a threat to the national security of the United States; and to determine whether UFOs were using any advanced technology that the United States could use.

Increasing UFO Reports Amidst Increasing Concern.

By the mid-1960s UFO reports were more numerous than ever. For the first time they were coming in regularly from places outside the United States, including Canada, Sweden, the Soviet Union, and Australia. In February 1966 another UFO panel was convened. Like the others, this panel determined that the vast majority of UFO reports were either natural phenomena or outright hoaxes.

A few scientists publicly disagreed with the panel’s conclusions. This group, which included James E. McDonald, a meteorologist at the University of Arizona, and J.Alien Hynek, an astronomer at Northwestern University, maintained that since a few of the most reliable UFO reports had never been clearly explained, this was definite proof that Earth was being visited by extra-terrestrials.

Task 1

Match the pair of synonyms among the following words:

a). record, phenomenon, refer to, occur, battle, claim, turn out, study, goal, amidst, concern, convene, outright, maintain;

b). declare, among, write down, happen, event, worry, argue for, speak about, investigate, call to meet, completely, purpose, fight, take place.

Task 2

The following words appear in the text. Match each one with a definition on the right.

Task 3

Are the following statements true or false? If false, say why. If true, add some more information.

1. Description of UFOs are numerous and varied.

2. One of the first described sightings happened in Europe in the XVI century.

3. The term “flying saucer” was invented by pilots and astronauts.

4. The information on UFOs, records, photos, report, etc. was always available to the public at large.

5. The nature of the most UFO sightings is quite unexplainable.

6. Very often uncommon weather conditions favor the appearance of strange lights and objects in the sky.

7. The US government considered the UFO problem to be of little importance.

8. By mid-1960s UFO report were coming in from many countries outside the USA.

9. In 1966 another UFO panel was called to meet for studying UFO reports.

Task 4

Explain or say in another way, paying attention to the underlined words and phrases.

1. Since UFOs were considered a potential security risk, the report on these sightings was originally classified as secret.

2. The US government has records of UFO sightings, including photos of allerged UFOs.

3. One of the first well-documented UFO sightings occurred in 1561.

4. One of the goals of projects Blue Book was to decide if UFOs posed a threat to the national security.

Task 5

Answer the following questions.

1. Are unexplained phenomena observed only in some parts of the world?

2. When did the term “flying saucer” appear?

3. What did most of all UFO sightings turn out to be?

4. What was organized for investigation of UFOs?

5. Which of the projects was the most ambitious?

6. What aims did the projects have?

7. What period was especially rich in UFO sightings?

8. Did the UFO panel come to any conclusion?

9. Did everybody agree with the panel conclusion?

Task 6

Render the text into English.

Американские ученые настаивают на реальности НЛО

Группа американских ученых, объединенных в так называемый «Проект Дискавери», утверждает, что НЛО существуют на самом деле. Как сообщает телекомпания Си-Эн-Эн, возглавляющий «Проект Дискавери» доктор Стивен Грир обратился в конгресс США с требованием организовать слушание по проблеме НЛО.

Группа «Проект Дискавери», в которую, как передает РИА «Новости», наряду с учеными входят также бывшие работники НАСА и Пентагона, с 1993 года ведет сбор документальных материалов, подтверждающих существование НЛО.

На сегодня группа располагает видеозаписями показаний 100 очевидцев, в том числе бывших пилотов НАСА и космонавтов, в которых подтверждаются непосредственные контакты с «пришельцами» и дается описание их летательных аппаратов.

Рассмотрение конгрессом вопроса о НЛО, по мнению доктора Грира, имеет огромное значение, поскольку речь идет о существовании и возможных контактах землян с представителями разума из других миров.

Helpful vocabulary

Persist in (утверждать, настаивать), apply to (обратиться), hearing (of) (слушание), eye-witness account (показания очевидцев), including (в том числе), inhabitants of the Earth (земляне), extraterrestrial intelligence (разум других миров).

Text 2

Pre-reading task

Do you believe in aliens?

What would you do if you saw an alien?

Would you talk to it? Would you call the police?

Reading

1. Read the text quickly and answer the following questions:

Which of the following words would you expect to find in the text with the above title?

When you check your choice against the text give line reference to any you find:

flying saucer, satellite, atmosphere, strange objects, telescope, celestial objects, planetary system, pick up signals, aircraft, stars, unexplained phenomenon, humanity.

2. What is the significance of the following numbers in the text?

150, 1977, 27

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