92 Chapter 5

Exercise 9. A. The following sentences contain stereotypes of male and female roles. Propose your options to avoid stereotyping:

1. A secretary should be familiar with her duties.

2. Every member of congress will cast his vote.

3. When everyone contributes his ideas, the workshop will be very stimulating.

4. A professor should meet his students regularly.

5. A director will bring his draft.

B. Avoid sexist language by choosing the appropriate options:

spouses to have a career lay people the average person/ordinary people

assistant humanity chairperson police officer

1. This problem concerns the whole mankind.

2. My girl will inform committee members of the meeting.

3. Alexandra is a career woman.

4. The policeman arrested the criminal.

5. The common man will suffer most.

6. The professors and their wives attended the meeting.

7. Who is a chairman?

8. To laymen the jargon that hedges such words as WIMP can seem impenetrable.

Exercise 10. Draw a graph based on the following data. Make some predictions for the future if present trends continue.

Women-scientists in the USA (mid 1990s) Percentage of physics PhD's to women — 8 Percentage of mathematics PhD's to women — 19 Percentage of chemistry PhD's to women — 25 Percentage of biology PhD's to women — 38 Percentage of psychology PhD's to women — 56

Exercise 11. Choose the correct word and fill in the blanks.

(to) explain explanation explanatory

1. My assistant will ____ the diagram.

2. There is no ____ for her absense.

3. There are some _____ notes at the end of each unit.

intention intentional

4. I had no ____ of changing my mind.

5. His absence was quite ____.

accurate accuracy

6. His report is _____ in every detail.

7. To be on the safe side, pay special attention to the _____ of calculations.

(to) avoid avoidance

8. I tried ____answering these questions .

9. We are discussing possible ways of ______ of danger.

Chapter 5 93

theoretical theoretically (to) theorize theorist (theoretician)

10. First, I'll explain how it works ______ then I'll give you a practical demonstration.

11. He is our leading ______

12. It's easy _____ about it.

13. She majors in ____ physics.

14. It's a _____ possibility, but I don't suppose it will happen.

Exercise 12. Read the passage and answer the questions about it.

What is culture? Culture is knowledge, beliefs, and behavior shared by a group of people that is learned and passed on from generation to generation.

It is not possible to say that all Americans share the same culture. It is more accurate to speak about the many cultures of Americans — the U.S. is often described as a «culture of cultures». Yet, even though it is not possible to speak of a single American culture, Americans talk about a «mainstream» U.S. culture that is shared by a majority of Americans.

When Americans describe their culture they may describe an ideal and not a real culture. For example, the following are often given as values of mainstream American culture: independence, hard work, honesty, equality of all persons. While many Americans show these values, there are also times when they do not, i.e. such values often describe an ideal way of living. The history of the USA shows Americans trying to change the values from ideal to real ones, for example, today Americans are continuing their efforts in the area of equality of women's and men's rights.

Sometimes one may overgeneralize particular features of a culture. For example, in southern U.S. «Sir» and «Ma'am» are used more frequently than in other regions, but if you have been only to southern U.S. you may think that this is true for all Americans. Overgeneralizations, called stereotypes, can create a false view of another culture. Some Overgeneralizations are positive, such as «Americans are hardworking and honest», other are negative, such as «Americans appear friendly, but don't really want to have deep relationships». Any stereotype, whether positive or negative, describes a group of people, but not individuals in that group.

Sometimes culture learning, like language learning can be tiring. This tired feeling, or culture fatigue is normal when you adapt to a different culture and language. Sometimes due to fatigue and frustration, some people become too critical of the new culture. The important thing, however, is to remember that adapting to a culture does not mean accepting everything in that culture.

1. What is the best title for the passage?

a. Real and ideal values.

b. Cultural stereotypes.

c. Culture learning.

d. Mainstream culture.

2. The U.S. can be called «a culture of cultures» because

a. Americans are very interested in cultures

b. there are many different cultures in the USA

c. all Americans share the same culture

d. American culture is a single culture

3. Independence, hard work, honesty, equality are:

a. examples of ideal culture for all people

b. examples of ideal American culture

c. examples of real American culture

d. examples of real culture for all people

4. An example of stereotype is

a. most Americans live in the U.S.

b. some Americans say «Ma'am» and «Sir» frequently

c. Americans are friendly, but don't want to have deep relationships

d. many people visit U.S. every year