92 Transcript and key 10. constituent; constituent 11. to get fined; to get fined 12. to justify; to justify 13. essence; essence 14. precarious; precarious 15. to employ; to employ 16. counterproductive; counterproductive 17. to alienate; to alienate 18. intention; intention 19. publicity; publicity Test practice: Is breaking the law right? (Transcript and key) Daniel: What I personally don’t like about these activists is that they do things which are totally unrelated to their cause. They claim to protest against the government and their policies but in fact what they do is they disrupt the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people who cannot do anything about the issues the protesters find so pressing. Isabel: Well, I do agree with you that some forms of protest are certainly unpleasant for the general public, but don’t you think it’s important to raise these issues and to draw attention to all the complications related to climate change? To me it’s absolutely clear that the government and parliament are not addressing these issues. What the political parties do is mainly fight each other instead of tackling these vital problems. They keep telling us that they care for their voters and that they take responsibility but do they really do that? In my view, they are failing their constituents, the people who have voted them into power. Daniel: But would you say that the situation is so bad that the protesters are entitled to break the law by blocking roads for example? When I stand in the middle of the road and prevent cars from going by, I will get fined. If these activists do it, they claim it is justified. I don’t think you can argue like that. Isabel: Oh come on, is it really such a big deal for people if they are delayed for more than an hour or so before they can move on? I don’t think that matters at all, to be frank. Of course, they might be late for work, but that’s the essence of political protest, that your activities have an impact on a large group of people. Otherwise you don’t have the power to achieve anything and you are not taken seriously. Apart from that, I’m sure most people will understand once they have realised how precarious the situation is. Daniel: The reasons why they stage these protests may be respectable, but it’s the methods they employ. That makes me so angry. And I’m not alone. There are millions of people who think that the strategies of these pressure groups are counterproductive. Not a single species is saved from extinction, nor does public transport receive a boost just because of these disruptions. And there are millions of people who have to rely on their cars to get to work. What should they do if there is no public transport available? In the long run, the large majority of people will be alienated, and they will turn away from these organisations and ignore the problems at the heart of the conflict. Is that what you want? Isabel: Look. It may well be that people are frustrated by these protests and don’t understand their intentions. On the other hand there is no such thing as negative publicity. As long as the media discuss these issues – even if they do it in a negative way – the activists are a step closer to their objective, and that is to put pressure on the government and on the politicians to finally take serious steps to deal with these pressing problems. Daniel: You may see it like that. 0: to protest against policies 1: disrupt other people’s lives 2: to raise environmental issues/awareness/draw attention to issues 3: fight each other/not solve problems 4: They will get fined. 5: not a big deal/they don’t matter 6: to have an impact 7: They are counterproductive/don’t work. 8: Environmental issues are discussed. 9: to take action/address environmental problems Test practice: The rules of netiquette (Transcript and key) It is a well-known fact that communication wherever and whenever it happens is only successful when certain rules are observed because it is very often the tone of an exchange that is more important than the message itself. And, of course, the same applies to communication on the internet, especially on social media. It is not only vital because you might otherwise not get your message across, it’s also important because anything you write on social media shows what kind of person you are. And do we really want to come across as a person who does not know how to behave in a respectful way? In order to address these issues, it helps to focus on a few practical steps to show that netiquette, the code of behaviour on the net, is more than a nice word. First, always be polite and respectful, very much like you would behave in a face-to-face conversation in real life. Even if others do not act like you would expect them to, stay polite. It is the much better option and tactically it makes your 3 + 57 4 + 58 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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