Global English
the global English of our times has all the benefits of a standardizing process. There is a recognized language standard in Britain and America. There is also an agreed, standardized vocabulary and spelling system, or nearly. Global English speaks with two voices: British and American. A student in, say, Japan or Saudi Arabia is confronted with not one version, but two, a distinction recognized by the main language schools, like Berlitz, who offer either British English or American English to their students. The differences are essentially differences of accent, inflection, spelling and, above all, vocabulary: apartment versus flat, buddy versus mate, candy versus sweets, diaper versus nappy. There are so many different expressions that America’s Associated Press and Britain’s Reuters news agencies have to translate English into English. The Reuters office in New York has a twelve – page list of common terms requiring translation and many are the books that compile jokes about box, knock up and fag.
skiing
Skill is one of the most popular sports in the world. According to recent estimates, about one hundred million people ski regularly or occasionally. Sliding across the snow on skis is also one of the most ancient methods of transport known to man. It has been demonstrated that men were already traveling across the snow by means of primitive skis before the invention of the wheel. In the Asiatic region of Altai and in Scandinavia, for example, the remains of skis have been found which date back to 4,000 BC. Further evidence is supplied by ancient cave paintings, which depict people skiing, and a Norwegian saga which tells the story of an invasion of its territory 8,000 years ago by tribe of skiers who came from the north. Nowadays, skiing, apart from being a sport, has become a big industry and anotable feature of leisure culture. Ski resorts and all the activity that they generate are the main source of wealth in many mountain regions, which were previously remote and inaccessible. Far from its once elitist image, skiing is now enjoyed by an increasingly broader spectrum of society.
Acoustic responsibility
We show an amazing tolerance for a form of pollution that is a growing problem: noise. Airplane traffic is increasing by five percent a year. Urban noise is doubling every ten years. By air, land and sea, we are facing an onslaught of noise that is threatening our ability to live in this world. We have granted ourselves the right to make noise. But what about our responsibilities? Have we developed a sense of acoustic responsibility? The evidence suggests that we have not. Many people seem to believe they have an unlimited right to make noise with cars and motorbikes, and with loud music at home and in the street. In some countries measures have been taken to force people to make lass noise. In Britain, for example, a law has been passed preventing people from disturbing their neighbors with music at night. It is widely accepted that we should deal with our rubbish in a responsible way. Noise is, in reality, a form of rubbish. It destroys community life, pursues us into our homes, keeps us from sleeping and is the cause of many stress – related illnesses, as well as hearing loss. Our acoustic environment belongs to all of us. Everyone has the right to make noise, but no one has the right to abuse it. Let’s start using it responsibly.
the Nile
Without the Nile, Egypt is nothing. Apart from the scattered oases in the Western Desert and the coastal areas along the Mediterranean and the Red seas, the Nile Valley is the only habitable and populated area of the country. For centuries, the river has provided Egypt’s entire water supply, its chief means of internal communication, its only source of power, and basic factor in its complex and vital pattern of agricultural development. Until the nineteenth century, this pattern remained virtually unchanged since the days of the Pharaohs. The flood waters of the Nile, which reach Egypt in summer after the rainy season far to the south in the highlands of Ethiopia, were diverted by irrigation canals to as much land lying on either side of the river as possible. When the water subsided, the peasants gathered their single crop for the year, and lived on it until the yearly miracle was repeated. Occasionally, Nature failed them and they went hungry; sometimes the flood was excessive and washed away their villages and drowned their animals. Either way, the Egyptians accepted with resignation an apparently unchangeable and largely beneficial natural cycle. The great dam at Asswan, completed as the twentieth century began, culminated attempts to control the Nile Egyptians now have some freedom from the river’s dictation. It is possible for two or even three plantings to be grown on the same land – incidentally increasing land values considerably
Global English
the global English of our times has all the benefits of a standardizing process. There is a recognized language standard in Britain and America. There is also an agreed, standardized vocabulary and spelling system, or nearly. Global English speaks with two voices: British and American. A student in, say, Japan or Saudi Arabia is confronted with not one version, but two, a distinction recognized by the main language schools, like Berlitz, who offer either British English or American English to their students. The differences are essentially differences of accent, inflection, spelling and, above all, vocabulary: apartment versus flat, buddy versus mate, candy versus sweets, diaper versus nappy. There are so many different expressions that America’s Associated Press and Britain’s Reuters news agencies have to translate English into English. The Reuters office in New York has a twelve – page list of common terms requiring translation and many are the books that compile jokes about box, knock up and fag.