Discussing the article

Source

1. How has the gap between super-rich and everyone else in America grown during the last 35 years?
2. What has mostly hurt workers at the bottom?
3. What does David Autor conclude in the end?How does he feel about his research and future trends?
4. Do you think present situation will lead America to a bigger economic problems?
5. Do you think it is a solution for everyone to go studying to the college?Why?

Reading Press

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I have learnt from this article that in Australia there is a need for workers from other countries but they can't accept everybody because thay are afraid the immigrants level of English language is not good engough for safe work. Subsequently, there is a quite difficult English test those people must pass. At the beginning I also thought lack of language knowledge could really be a cause of deaths because the author has brought some impressive statistics in. But in the end of the article there is another opinion that also seems to be right; the person who is against though language requirements says there are many safety systems that are made for multilingual workplaces and that there is no need of that strict tests. From my perspective, it is hard to pick any of the sides, however I believe that maybe those language requirements could be diluted a little as a compromise. 

English Olympiad

Maria, do all listening tasks in parts 3 and 4. Link...

Preparation for English contest

Maria, some links for you to listen:

link 1

Link 2

Link 3

English Idioms Lesson

To go bananas - Нервничать, сходить с ума

It's a case of sour grapes - Хорош виноград, да зелен

A second bite of the cherry - Еще одна попытка

Are traditions important?

What does our life consist of? From my point of view it is made up of things that we can completely or partially control and be sure of and things we can never predict to happen. Clearly, we feel better about the first type of things and those include traditions.
Traditions make us feel more confident and secure, they soothe us by showing that life is not so changable and dreadful. Some traditions are even more pleasant - different festivities and celebrations escape us from the rut, bring bright colours into our lives and let us relax. People get together because of the traditions and have a great time. They feel that they are nor alone and that they belong somwhere.
I believe that if there weren't traditions, humans would be senseless creatures who start each day fresh and don't care about what have been done before.  

Biotechnology

Task 1 Read the text and fill the gaps.

GM food: we can no longer afford to ignore its advantages

To alleviate some of the worst dangers from the looming food crisis, we must tap into the rich potential of genetic modification.

Robin McKie, The Observer, Saturday 13 October 2012 20.02 BST

The United Nations has warned of a looming worldwide food crisis in 2013. Photograph: Reso/Rex Features

(1) ... As the government's chief scientific adviser, Sir John Beddington, once put it in an Observerinterview: "There will be no silver bullet."

(2)... It would also be foolish not to make the maximum use of the new technologies that we are developing in order to alleviate some of the worst dangers we will face in the decades that lie ahead.

And among those scientific wonders, the use of genetically modified crops has a particularly rich potential, Beddington added. "Just look at the problems that the world faces: water shortages and salination of existing water supplies, for example. GM crops should be able to deal with that."

It is a good point. (3) ... That loss comes to around 30%, agriculture experts calculate, a rate that cannot be allowed to continue. And GM crops are perfectly placed to solve that sort of problem.

The work of scientists at the Rothamsted research station in England provides a good example of the sort of benefits that can be achieved through genetic modification. (4) ... In effect, it tells other aphids to fly away. For good measure, E-beta-farnesene also attracts aphid predators such as ladybirds and wasps. (5) ... Aphids cause an estimated £100m of damage to crops every year in the UK alone.

At present, the effectiveness of Rothamsted's anti-aphid GM wheat has only been demonstrated in the laboratory. (6) ... However, their protest fizzled out, a development that suggests the green movement is growing up over its opposition to genetically modified crops.

(7) ...  We need to act now to start to cope with crises over water supply, world population numbers and rising carbon emissions in the hope that advances in agriculture and genetics can give us time for such measures to be introduced and take effect.

(8) ... "It is unimaginable that in the next 10 to 20 years there will not be a worsening of that problem unless we take action now, and we have to include the widest possible range of solutions."

A They have engineered a strain of wheat so that it emits a chemical called E-beta-farnesene which is also emitted by aphids when they are threatened.

B Earlier this year field trials were prepared but were threatened by anti-GM campaigners.

C Or, as Beddington has made clear, there are almost a billion people today who are suffering from serious food shortages and who face starvation.

D Consider the simple issue of food that is lost before it can be harvested because it has been eaten by pests that humans have never learned to control.

E In the end, however, science can only delay the inevitable, as Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington has made clear.

F However, the population biologist added a crucial caveat.

G In short, it delivers a double whammy – and one with rich potential.

H Given the crises facing the planet, with the population set to reach the 9 billion mark by 2050 and increasing strains being placed on water, energy and food supplies, it would be wrong to hope there could be a single solution to the storms that lie ahead.

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