3a Academic English - Excerpts

Unit 3: Academic English
Pre-reading
Task 2) Read six passages from different disciplines. Match the passages with (i) the respective
disciplines and (ii) titles/sources.
1) ____________________________________________________________________
The survey is the most common method by which sociologists gather their data. The Gallup Poll is
perhaps the best-known example of a survey and, like all surveys, gathers its data with the help of
a questionnaire that is given to a group of respondents. The Gallup Poll is an example of a survey
conducted by a private organization, but it typically includes only a small range of variables. It
thus provides a good starting point for research but usually does not include enough variables for a
full-fledged sociological study. Sociologists often do their own surveys, as does the government
and many organizations in addition to Gallup.
2) _____________________________________________________________________
Given the inglorious coverage the Balkans have had in the West, what is the experience of being
called Balkan? How do the ones defined as belonging geographically or historically to the Balkans
deal with the name? Do they consider themselves Balkan and what is meant by this? Several
qualifications are in order. This is not a historical survey of the process of creating self-identities
and self-designation. Rather, it aims at conveying an idea of present images and emotions as they
are articulated in the region. As such, it has some of the advantages and all the drawbacks of an
impressionistic painting. Since it deals with problems of present-day identification in reference to
the Balkans, it would seem at first glance that the place of this account should follow
chronologically the exploration of the evolution of the term “Balkan.”
3) ____________________________________________________________________
Every one will readily allow, that there is a considerable difference between the perceptions of the
mind, when a man feels the pain of excessive heat, or the pleasure of moderate warmth, and when
he afterwards recalls to his memory this sensation, or anticipates it by his imagination. These
faculties may mimic or copy the perceptions of the senses; but they never can entirely reach the
force and vivacity of the original sentiment. The utmost we say of them, even when they operate
with greatest vigour, is, that they represent their object in so lively a manner, that we could almost
say we feel or see it: But, except the mind be disordered by disease or madness, they never can
arrive at such a pitch of vivacity, as to render these perceptions altogether undistinguishable. All
the colours of poetry, however splendid, can never paint natural objects in such a manner as to
make the description be taken for a real landscape. The most lively thought is still inferior to the
dullest sensation.
4) ____________________________________________________________________
It is important in considering how parent-teacher partnerships may be developed, teacher
educators listen to teachers' descriptions of their efforts, successes, and concerns. To begin to
understand how early childhood teachers viewed parent-teacher partnerships, we distributed an
open-ended survey to teachers enrolled in two graduate courses during the summer of 1992. The
anonymous and voluntary survey was completed by 16 teachers, 7 of whom held master's degrees.
Teaching experience ranged from 4 to 18 years, with the average being 14 years. Five of the
teachers taught prekindergarten, 4 taught kindergarten, 4 taught first through fourth grades, 3 were
special education teachers, and 1 was serving as a school psychologist. All respondents were
white, middle-class, and female. Through this limited survey, we hoped to begin to understand
teachers' perceptions about parent involvement, particularly in young children's literacy
development.
5) ____________________________________________________________________
Why, then, do we continue to associate ancient Egypt with glamour and beauty? “We still find
ancient Egyptian civilisation very seductive,” agrees Tyldesley, who believes that this is due to the
afterlives of two famous Egyptian queens: Cleopatra and Nefertiti.
Ever since antiquity, following the Roman conquest of Egypt, Cleopatra has been known as a
paragon of beauty. Meanwhile the discovery, in 1912, of the famous painted bust of Nefertiti, now
in Berlin’s Egyptian Museum, turned a little-known wife of the pharaoh Akhenaten into a pin-up
of the ancient world.
Yet, says Tyldesley, who has written a biography of Cleopatra and is researching a book on
Nefertiti, there is irony to the fact that these two Egyptian queens now resonate as sex symbols.
6) ____________________________________________________________________
In its everyday usage, the term ‘other’ is seemingly unproblematic. We use it to designate that
which is different – other than – ourselves or the myriad of established norms and practices that
govern our lives. Yet, in acknowledging the interdependence of self and other, norm and
deviation, the preceding sentence already begins to hint at the underlying complexity of this
concept and the impossibility of offering a stable definition that does not evoke its antithesis. It is
important to recognize, however, that the other is not, in any simple way, the direct opposite of the
self. Rather, the two exist in a complex relation that undermines any simplistic conception of
self/other, inside/outside or centre/margin. Nor is the other a stable or unchanging entity.
Disciplines
a) History
b) Education
c) History of Art
d) Literature
e) Sociology
f) Philosophy
Titles/Sources
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (David Hume); monograph (edited by…)
Communication between Teachers and Parents: Developing Partnerships (Beverly Bruneau, Donna
Ruttan, S. Kay Dunlap); journal article
How ancient Egypt shaped our idea of beauty (BBC Culture); article
Types of Sociological Research: Surveys (Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World);
textbook
Imagining the Balkans (Maria Todorova); monograph
The Other (The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms); dictionary entry

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Unit 3: Academic English

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