14. Supply the correct form of the verbs given in brackets and perform the role play given below. A Bum Rap in the Big Apple

This is not the weather to be down and out in New York. Yet, (1) _______________ (to compare) with (2) _______________ (to complain) commuters, the homeless people (3) _______________ (to bed) down on the church steps in Fifth Avenue are admirably stoical. A young black couple (4) _______________ (to erect) a cardboard barricade against the snow say they will be warm enough, and would rather sleep rough together than be apart in the city’s single-sex shelters for children and adults. On another step, Dave, a middle-aged white man homeless since his divorce, lies (5) _______________ (to wrap) in blankets, (6) _______________ (to read) Stephen King’s novel “The Green Mile”. He says he will get a job and a home, once he (7) ____ his teeth ______ (to fix). Meanwhile he would rather brave the elements than go to the city’s shelter, which he doesn’t like for reasons he is too embarrassed to describe.

Until last November, people seemed to have lost interest in homelessness. (8) _______________ (to compare) with Washington, DC, San Francisco or even London, the homeless in Manhattan seem fewer, and certainly much less aggressive. People who remembered the early 1990s increasingly found themselves (9) _______________ (to wonder), “Where have all the homeless gone?”

Because there are no good data, it is hard to know – though part of the explanation is that some homeless people (10) _______________ (to move) to peripheral parts of the city. The rest (11) _____________ (to be) better behaved; and that, in New York, is the surest way to get (12) _______________ (to forget). As part of Mr Giuliani’s “quality of life” policies, in 1994 the police tore up their implicit contract with the homeless, effectively (13) _______________ (to abolish) their communities by (14) _______________ (to require) that the homeless sleep in groups of no more than two or three. Any homeless person (15) _______________ (to make) a nuisance, especially with persistent (16) _______________ (to beg), would be arrested. This approach widely (17) _______________ (to imitate) in other big American cities.

But when homeless Paris Drake attacked a commuter with a brick on November 16, 1999, the mayor responded at once. (18) _______________ (to arrest) barely 100 homeless people in the ten months before the attack, the police took in 361 between November 23 and January 12.

The mayor wants to end this, by (19) _______________ (to make) shelter for the homeless (20) _______________ (to work). (21) _______________ (to link) shelter to work may not be as heartless as it seems. The city will provide a job, if private alternative is not available. And it will provide childcare for homeless mothers while they work (though suggestion that mothers (22) _______________ (to refuse) to work might (23) ______ their children _______ (to take) into care has generated some hostile publicity).

(From ‘The Economist’, abridged)

Role play. You are taking part in a TV panel discussion. The point is that there have been several assaults committed by homeless people of late.

Role 1. You are the leader of the panel. Introduce the problem to be discussed and ask the participants to speak.

Role 2. You are police captain Arthur McCarthy. Explain why the problem of the homeless is of vital importance for any megapolice. (Having no jobs, the homeless ... . Being hungry / having children, the homeless commit ... . With the crime rate among the homeless growing, the authorities have to ... . With homeless children getting no education ... etc.)

Role 3. You are Maurice Bilton, a charity worker. Tell the panel how charity organizations work to help the homeless survive. (To have / shelter / to provide. Having raised money, we ... etc.)

Role 4. You are Roland(a) Gates, a sanitary inspector. Explain why the homeless present danger for the sanitary condition of a megapolice. (Have / the homeless / to examine by doctors. Have / them / to vaccinate (to supply with food, etc.). Sleeping in the underground they can disseminate ... etc.)