Noises things make

Game

We frequently find it difficult to describe a sound precisely. Notice how often English speakers say: There was a sort of bang or I heard a kind ofcrack. However, there is clearly a difference between a thud and a squeak, a rattle and a roar. One thing which will also help you is that most of the words of this kind can act as both a noun and a verb.

Try, in each section often items below, to find a sound on the right that can be caused by each item in the left-hand column. (Most of these words can be used as nouns and verbs, which is something!)

Practice

Щ List other things or events which might cause each of the noises and sounds listed above.

[2j Explain what causes noise pollution in our society and suggest some remedies if you can.

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Describe the sounds and noises around us that you hate most and that you find attractive.

If you are working in a group, act out a meeting at which two of you are factory managers and the other two are representatives of the workforce who are unhappy about their working conditions in the factory.

If you are working alone, write what you would say at this meeting. Choose whether you wish to be a manager or an employee.

The main grievances are the number of hours worked without a break, the volume of noise in the factory and the lack of anywhere relaxing to spend one's time off.

Write a paragraph from your new novel, A Ghost Story, in which the heroine is woken up at three in the morning by (the ghost ofyour choice).

Branching out into screenplay work, write a scene (without any dialogue) for your new horror movie. It's set in an old country house at midnight, during a thunder storm.

Write an article on one of the following topics.

1 the experiences of a soldier (in the trenches) during the First World War 2 what you could hear when you stood still and listened at a funfair

More noises exist. If you hear any, note down the words for them here.

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Reading 1

Read the text several times over the next day or so, doing the exercise following it each time. This will help you to remember and use the key words in the text.

Having a baby

The day I got the results of the pregnancy test - positive, 'pregnancy confirmed' -1 was over the moon. I sat down and made out a shopping list straightaway.

I couldn't believe it: me a mother-to-be! Actually pregnant! Expecting! 'An expectant mother' - that was my favourite description of me. My friends all joked about me being on some kind of fertility drug, conceiving as I did so soon after our wedding.

I had the customary morning sickness for a while, but after that, no trouble. I went along to the ante-natal clinic every fortnight and started doing all the proper breathing exercises like an excited child.

And I read! Book after book on the subject of childbirth: how big the foetus is in the womb at the various stages, the pros and cons of confinement at home, how 15% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, the dangers of this and that. Some of it wasn't very pleasant reading, I can tell you.

The feeling of reliefwas indescribable when, at the beginning of the fifth month, the doctor said he could hear the baby's heartbeat. He was a fully-trained gynaecologist, by the way - or was he an obstetrician? -1 can't remember. A few days later I felt the first kick, and that was a pretty exciting moment, too.

It was in the twenty-eighth week that things began to go wrong. I had had several blood tests before, but after this one I was told my blood pressure was far too high

— there was a risk ofblood poisoning — and I would have to go into hospital. There followed a period of heartburn, cramp, vomiting and insomnia. I kept overhearing bits of conversations: 'may have to induce labour', 'if the baby is

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premature, we'll...' etc. My mind was filled with visions of incubators, induction, Caesarian operations and appalling complications. And the baby wasn't due for another six weeks!

When the time came, I was in labour for twenty-three hours. I remember shouting through a haze as they took me into the labour ward: 'No drip! No drugs! No stitches! Please!' I came out having had them all, and in the end it was a forceps delivery - or so I'm told.

After all that, I just looked forward to the simple joys of motherhood. When they told me I couldn't breast-feed and she would have to be bottle-fed, my post-natal depression really started. Some nights I would lie awake mumbling 'Never again'.

It's been pretty well the same story each time, but after the fifth I gave up saying 'Never again'. I really do think that the stork system of having babies has a lot of advantages.*

Practice 1

Find all these figures and places in the text. Then show how they are relevant, as in the examples.

128th

223 hours

3at least 5

42 dozen

5the ante-natal clinic

6every 2 weeks

7the labour ward

Add any further vocabulary that you feel is relevant to babies here.

Reading 2

There are two stories below, one about marriage, and one about divorce. Start in the middle column, which both stories have in common. Then read each story. When you have finished, cover the left-hand and right-hand columns in turn and try to remember the marital expressions.

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Reading 3

Look through these thoughts on death over the next few days, noting some of the many words and expressions that may be required on this delicate subject.

1 Most of our relatives are dead. It's a big subject. We all die.

The priest says we have gone to meet our Maker — gone to a better place.

Close relatives say we have passed away. Schoolboys say someone has kicked the bucket. Legally speaking, we are referred to as deceased.

There are a hundred and one ways to die. Most people would like to die from natural causes - of old age. Many don't, as you can see below.

2 Causes of Death among US males aged 25 to 44

Notes

1Accidental death covers many things, of course. A fair proportion of those above will have been knocked down in a road accident, many will have died at the wheel of their car. A few will have died in plane crashes, some will have drowned at sea. Some will have been burnt to death in a fire, a number gassed, rather more electrocuted. A lot no doubt suffocated or were asphyxiated in an airless room or fire, one or two will have choked to death on

afish-bone.

4There are a hundred and one ways of being killed. If you are an important celebrity, you can be assassinated. Remember the assassination of JFK and the subsequent murder ofhis suspected assassin? You can be stabbed to death with a sword or knife. You can be shot with a gun like Bonnie and Clyde. You can be poisoned with something you didn't order in your dinner. You can be strangled with a piece of string or scarf. The Boston Strangler might ring a bell?

3 War brings with it a language of its own: missing, presumed dead; fatally wounded; he laid down his life for his country; she sacrificed herself for the sake ofher comrades. In wartime, and even sometimes in peacetime, one hears of massacres and slaughter, with hundreds of victims and often no survivors.

4 There are other ways of being killed, apart from being murdered or being killed in action. Capital punishment is one of them. Many countries still retain the death penalty for serious offenders. Ifyou are sentenced to death and are not pardoned or reprieved at a later date, then you will be executed; perhaps hanged - with a rope, or electrocuted - in the electric chair, or guillotined - remember the French Revolution, or shot - by a firing squad, or garotted or beheaded or ... But enough is enough, I hear you cry. Agreed. If I could just remind you, though, that a couple of thousand years ago you might have been crucified - on a cross, or stoned to death, like some Christian martyrs.

5 There are a hundred and one ways of committing suicide. Many of the horrors above you can do to yourself, but the most popular method is to take an overdose of drugs like Marilyn Monroe and too many others.

Is euthanasia murder? Is voluntary euthanasia the same as suicide? Are they all crimes or do you believe that mercy-killing can bring welcome release?

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The statistics deal only with men aged twenty-five to forty-four. Twenty-five is very young, but death can come earlier. The infant mortality rate in some countries is as high as one in three. Despite the advances in medical science, many babies are stillborn, and the number of inexplicable cot deaths continues to give cause for alarm.

For many people, all these figures are somewhat overshadowed by the fact that millions are dying of hunger, starving to death. Some are dying of thirst, many more of malnutrition. Is there a bloodbath waiting round the corner, do you think? A holocaust waiting for the spark?

A lot of things have to be done after death. An inquest may have to be held to determine how we died. This might involve a post-mortem or autopsy. Then, most of the arangements are made by a firm of funeral directors - or undertakers. Much depends on whether we have chosen to be buried or cremated. For burial, we will be concerned with a coffin, in which to place the body, a hearse, in which to transport it, a grave, in which the coffin will finally be placed, and a cemetery (or graveyard), in which the grave will be dug. For cremation, more simply, an urn to hold our ashes, and a crematorium to hold the service. In either case, one might expect wreaths to be brought to the funeral service and an epitaph to be engraved on our headstone. Then it will be time for the will to be read; death duties may have to be paid; our heir will inherit our estate; our widow or widower will no doubt be in mourning for a long time to come.

We are unlikely to have a tomb. Napoleon has a tomb in Paris, but that honour is reserved for people like him. Nor will our corpses be laid to rest in a mausoleum. It is extremely unlikely that someone will compose a requiem in our honour or build a statue to our memory, and almost certain that we shall not lie in state for even a day. An obituary in The Times would be asking a lot. No, I think the most we can hope for is that someone might recognize our talents posthumously and dedicate something to us then. RIP, as we say, or rest in peace.

Practice 2

Below you will find definitions of some ofthe important words in the text. Try to give the word for each of them. Ifyou cannot remember it, read the text again to find it.

1 a person who murders someone important

2a large decorative grave with a space inside

3be unable to breathe air; dying or killing in this way

4to kill by pressing on the throat with the hands

5someone put to death for their beliefs

6poor condition of health resulting from lack of (good) food

7to burn the body of a dead person at a funeral ceremony

10 a piece of music written for a dead person

Write or discuss the answers to these questions.

1What poems, plays and films have you read and seen which deal with the subject of death? What was your reaction to them?

2How would you summarise modern thinking about the way babies should be born? Do you agree with these theories?

3What needs to be done to make a wedding ceremony successful?

Write or act out a conversation in which you ask someone how her recent pregnancy went and how the baby is doing.

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Debate or write an article on the following subject: Ifthe institution ofmarriage breaks down, so will our society. Take five minutes to think ofyour ideas, arrange your arguments, consider your strategy. Then argue!

Write, in dialogue form, a conversation between a parent and his or her child of five who has just asked what happens to us when we die.

Write an article for your local paper describing the funeral of a national hero or heroine in your country.

Write a part of your letter to a friend describing how everything went wrong at another friend's recent wedding.

Add here any words to do with death that you meet.

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