Speaking

Exercise 6.Use your outside reading, personal experiences, TV and video-watching, etc. to support, expand on or question the points and observations made in the chapter. Use compelling evidence and appropriate language to sound convincing.

Writing

Exercise 7.Using the Supplementary Materials, write a 350-word commentary explaining the cultural information, things and stereotypes related to the topics of British / American Establishment, Social Security or the Welfare Society.

Exercise 8.Write a 400-word essay on what constitutes the notion of the Establishment in your culture.

Unit 11. Yes, prime minister. The smoke screen (Film)

The newly-elected PM grapples with the show-biz side of politics.

Exercise 1.Watch the film closely and think up two true or false statements to make sure that your classmates have got the story right.

The words and phrases below will help you to remember things better:

jet-lag, n / to swap briefs / to rubbish the French / grand design / national benefactors / salient points / get sth. on the grapevine / set up a practice session / teleprompter, n / commission an opinion poll / advised by their Private Secretaries / paid consultant / thoroughly merited.

Exercise 2.

a) Make note of the conversational formulas the speakers use and noises they make to show their feelings on the subject and towards each other and prepare to discuss their stylistic and contextual references. (Noises express the speaker’s agreement/disagreement, approval/ disapproval of various degrees of politeness, and are also exclamations of surprise, rebuff, protest, and so on).

b) Try to build p your list of noises as you go on with your studies, for it will help you to learn to respond adequately to the things you are told or shown.

Exercise 3.

a) Draw on the information in the Supplementary Materials and your background knowledge to complete the following chart on the government structure in Britain

GOVERNMENT
CENTRAL	LOCAL
– – – –	– county councils – – – …
FUNCTIONS – pass laws …	FUNCTIONS – planning …

b) Complete a similar chart on the US government.

Exercise 4.Write a 300-word essay about the uneasy relationship between the PM and the Civil Service in Britain.

Unit 12. A better class of foreigner ‘Foreigner’

AMERI-THINK: Everybody in America is one, with the exception of half-a-dozen or so pure-blooded Sioux … which gets one problem out of the way. Having said that, there’s no doubt that there are ‘foreigners’ and ‘foreigners’. No matter how you slice it, a Brit is not as foreign as an Armenian, who is not as foreign as a Burmese, who is not as foreign as a Zulu.

In theory, America is the Great Melting Pot, where much is tolerated in terms of race, language, background, religion, and goodness knows – cuisine. Only in America will any coffee shop sell you a kolbasi, an enchilada and a croissant to go.

But every culture has its sticking-points. Black people and Hispanics are still fighting for an even break, while people of Euro-extraction seem to have won one. ‘Class A’ orientals (the Japanese, and Hong Kong Chinese) are also doing well, with ‘class B’ orientals (Koreans, Filipinos, South-east Asians) moving up fast on the inside. Middle Europeans (Hungarians, Romanians, Czechs and Poles) fit in once they learn the lingo, and until then, play professional tennis. Yanks have no objection to Russian immigrants, who seem to do specially well in New York City, where they drive cabs and subvert only the traffic system. Israelis don’t come to America, it’s the other way around. Indians from India present a problem, because they are hard-working and desirable, but you don’t want to open the floodgates; and Arabs are no problem because poor ones seldom come, and the rest head directly for the Mayo Clinic. Brits, Canadians, Aussies and people from Monte Carlo are classed as demi-foreigners.

While it is true that you must be born a US citizen if you wish to be President, non-native sons have been known to rise high. Ted Koppel (Born Brit) and Peter Jennings (Canadian) fill the small screen every night. Henry Kissinger – with traces of a German accent – was a power in the land, as was Zbigniew Brzezinski – though few could pronounce his name. To this day, no one knows if Lee Lacocca is American, Italian, or Japanese. One day, Rupert Murdoch will be President, even if he has to purchase the White House.