A PRACTICAL ENGLISH COURSE IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES

Liliana Anton

Junior Lecturer MA, Ph.D. under completion

Content

Introduction

I. Grammar in a nutshell – Morphology/Morfologia

I.1. Articolul (The Article) Definition, examples and tasks
I.2. Substantivul (The noun) Definition, examples and tasks
I.3. Verbul (The verb - tenses of the indicative mood) Definition, examples and tasks
I.4. Adjectivul si gradele de comparaţie (The adjective and the degrees of comparison) Definition,
examples and tasks
I.5. Pronumele (The pronoun) Definition, examples and tasks

II. Negation and illocutionary acts

II.1. Illocutionary acts - definition
II.2.Sentence – definition – 1 negation example
II.3.Sentence negators: categories:
a. particle no
b. adverbs
c. pronouns
d. any
e. affixes
II.4. Degrees of negativity
a. week vs. strong negation
b. emphatic negatives
c. semantic changes
II.5. Lexical negativity
II.6. Sentence negation – syntactic function
II.7.The negation of the verb in expressing / using tenses at the indicative mood
II.8.Tests of negativity
II.9.question tags
II.10. yes/ no questions
II.11.Tasks

III. English in communication studies

III.1. Translation exercises from English into Romanian
III.2. Translation exercises from Romanian into English
III.3. Creative writing
III.4. Tasks

Recommended sites
Bibliography

Introducere
 Cursul de fata se adresează studenţilor din anul I si al II-lea de studiu din cadrul Facultăţii de
Ştiinţe ale Comunicării.

Obiectivele didactice vizează:

Pentru anul I de studiu

1. familiarizarea studenţilor cu limba engleza daca aceştia sunt la nivel de începător, prin
explicarea cunoştinţelor de baza ale morfologiei, respectiv: articol, substantiv, verb, adjectiv,
pronume
2. aprofundarea noţiunilor de gramatica limbii engleze, negaţia in limba engleza având aspecte
de morfologie si sintaxa
3. cunoaşterea si înţelegerea conceptelor fundamentale ale istoriei limbii engleze in contextul
lingvisticii generale, al pragmaticii, antropologiei culturale si sociolingvisticii. Interesează
elemente de istoria limbii, cum ar fi elemente specifice lexicale, definirea conceptelor de
limba engleza academica, standard, oficiala. In egala măsura este importanta definirea
conceptuala a lingvisticii, antropologiei culturale si pragmaticii in strânsa corelaţie cu studiul
limbii engleze de specialitate. Abordarea conceptuala a exprimării in limba engleza ca limba
internaţionala este de asemenea de interes.
4. explicarea noţiunilor fundamentale si a conceptelor de specialitate in contextul istoriei limbii
engleze începând cu secolul al V-lea pana in prezent. Interpretarea acestora se realizează atât
la nivel teoretic, prin înţelegerea definiţiilor si a fenomenului istoric dar si la nivel practic prin
analiza unui număr redus de texte de specialitate ilustrative in acest sens (de exemplu:
impactul la nivel lexical al limbii latine asupra limbii engleze reflectat in tipuri de plural al
substantivelor)
5. Categorizarea stilurilor funcţionale ale limbii engleze si a registrelor lingvistice Determinarea
limitata si specifica a limbii engleze in cadrul ştiinţelor comunicării, respectiv a Relaţiilor
Publice cu aplicativitate in cercetare, planificare si monitorizarea acestora
6. Interesează categorizarea stilurilor funcţionale ale limbii engleze si a registrelor lingvistice cu
exemplificări sintetice pe tipuri de text de specialitate pentru fiecare categorie. Fiecare text
exemplificator nu depaseste un număr de 3000 de caractere, pentru a se putea face diferenţa
clara intre acestea. Pentru textele de specialitate se are in vedere limbajul specific cercetării in
Relaţiile Publice.

Pentru anul al II-lea de studiu

1. Cunoaşterea variantelor limbii engleze, prin asimilarea cunoştinţelor de istoria limbii, din
perspectiva antropologiei culturale. Realizarea cadrului cultural englez si explicarea noţiunilor ce
ţin de colonialism si limba engleza ca limba străina.
Dobândirea capacitaţii de aplicare a noţiunilor însuşite in redactarea textelor funcţie de registrul
lingvistic; perspectiva pragmatica. Stimularea creativităţii si originalităţii la nivelul exprimării
scrise. Este stimulat si încurajat procesul de gândire creativa, analitica si critica in abordarea
culturii si limbii engleze
2. Însuşirea conceptelor fundamentale ale comunicării in Relaţii Publice si aplicarea acestora in
tipuri de discurs si texte de specialitate. Modele retorice de discurs in Relaţiile Publice. Redactarea
textului scris si prezentarea acestuia. Folosirea mijloacelor vizuale ca suport in prezentarea
discursului. Strategii si tehnici specifice de comunicare in Relaţiile Publice.
3. Interesează nivelul de înţelegere al fiecărui student al conceptelor fundamentale si in egala
măsura felul in care acesta aplica la nivel practic noţiunile asimilate. Este încurajata prezentarea
discursului in cadrul seminarului de specialitate.

La încheierea cursului, studenţii vor avea următoarele abilitaţi:

- vor avea capacitatea de a citi un text de specialitate si de a-l înţelege
- vor putea redacta texte in limba engleza
- se vor putea exprima fluent
TEME DE SPECIALITATE PENTRU ANUL I

I. Strategies of communication in English

I.1. The English language in communication nowadays
I.2. The English language and its history
I.3. Cultural anthropology and the history of English language
I.4. Pragmatics and the use of English language in context

II. Standard English

II.1. What type of English language we learn?
II.2. Sociolinguistics and the English language in brief
II.3. Phonetics, Phonology and the “proper” accent – BBC
II.4. Is it dialect or standard? Is it British or American?
II.5. The English in PR – Research as a first step

III. Styles and registers in English

III.1. Standard English, colloquial, slang
III.2. Formal vs. informal
III.3. Registers in English
a. English in communication
b. English in literature (narrative description, poetry)
c. English in journalism
d. English in economics, banking, finance
e. English in ecology
f. English language in PR

IV. English language in PR

IV.1. Definitions and research as a first step
IV.2. Planning in communication studies
IV.3. Evaluation of steps in PR
IV.4. Public opinion and persuasion

TEME DE SPECIALITATE PENTRU ANUL AL II-LEA

I. The cultural history of English language
I.1. The Celtic heritage in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
I.2. The American English and its history
I.3. The Republic of Ireland – Gaelic and English language
I.4. Canadian English in prose

II. Creative writing in communication

II.1. Europass CV, Cover(ing) letter, Letter of Recommendation
II.2. Formal, official, informal letter
II.3. Newsrelease, institutional communication and the press
II.4. Types of letters: of complaint, expressing regret, asking for information

III. Programming communication in PR

III.1. The audience and how to reach it
III.2. Spoken tactics in PR: types of discourses
III.3. Written tactics in PR
III.4. Visual tactics in PR
I. MORFOLOGIA (Morphology)
Prezentare generala
Cele doua parti constitutive ale gramaticii tradiţionale sunt morfologia si sintaxa. Morfologia cuprinde
regulile privitoare la forma cuvintelor si la modificarile formale ale cuvintelor studiate pe parti de vorbire;
sintaxa cuprinde regulile privitoare la imbinarea cuvintelor in propozitii si fraze.
Unitatea de analiza in gramatica traditionala este cuvantul.
Gramatica traditionala grupeaza cuvintele din punct de vedere morphologic in zece parti de vorbire:
1. articolul
2. substantivul
3. verbul
4. pronumele
5. numeralul
6. adjectivul
7. adverbul
8. prepozitia
9. conjunctia
10. interjectia
Partile de vorbire se disting dupa ceea ce exprima, numele unui obiect – (substantivul), un numar sau o
determinare numerica (numeralul), o actiune sau o stare (verbul), o caracteristica a unei actiuni, stari sau
insusjri (adverbul), exteriorizarea unui sentiment, a unei stari fizice, a unui act de vointa sau imitarea unui
sunet (interjecfia).

I.1. Articolul (The article)

Definitie.
Articolul este partea de vorbire care constituie un mijloc de individualizare a obiectelor si fenomenelor intr-
un context lingvistic sau situational; nu are forme flexionare, fiind neflexibil din punct de vedere
morfologic; indeplineste functia de determinant. Articolul este redat prin articolul hotarit the, articolul
nehotarit a sau an sau prin articolul zero. Aceste articole se folosesc pentru a realiza: 1) referinta unica
(unique reference) 2) referinta individuala (individual reference).
Articolul hotarat este folosit pentru a exprima referinta unica.
The earth moves round the sun. Pamintul se invirteste in jurul soarelui.
Articolul nehotarit poate fi folosit pentru introducerea in comunicare a unei notiuni care nu a fost
mentionata anterior.

TASKS
A. Fill in the blanks with the, a, an or no article:
“Do you see _____ man standing near ______ door? He works as _____ assistant in ____ same shop as I
do. Well, I saw him the other day and he was driving ______ red Porsche. And do you see ______
expensive clothes he’s wearing? Where does he get ____ money to pay for it all? ______ month ago he
hadn’t got _____ penny. I told you about ______ burglary that we had at ________ shop, didn’t I? Do you
think I should go to _____ police?

B. Fill in the gaps with a or one:

……….day last year – it was………very hot afternoon in June – I was hurrying to get home. I was
about………….. hour late - well, to be precise, exactly……………. hour and ten minutes: I had taken the
train that arrived at the station at 6.15. Anyway, there was…………. woman standing under the trees, and
there were several children with her. I saw………… child clearly – she was ……….lovely dark-haired girl
– but I only heard the others. Suddenly……… strange thing happened. The girl took some stones and
leaves out of her pocket, and threw………. stone after another into the air.

C. Insert a or an if necessary:
My neighbour is…….photographer; let’s ask him for………advice about colour films.
We had………fish and………chips for……..lunch.
That doesn’t sound…………….very interesting lunch.
I had a very bad night. I didn’t sleep ………....wink.
We’d better go by……taxi – if we can get ………..taxi at such ………..hour as 2 a.m.

I.2. Substantivul (The noun)

Definiţie
Substantivul denumeşte obiecte in sens foarte larg, adică fiinţe, lucruri, fenomene (man, chair, snow, walk,
wisdom); are categoriile gramaticale de gen, număr şi caz; poate îndeplini in propoziţie funcţiile de subiect,
nume predicativ, atribut, apoziţie, complement, element predicativ suplimentar, sau poate fi echivalentul
unei propoziţii sau fraze.
Numărul substantivelor (Number of Nouns)
Substantivele in limba engleza au categoriile gramaticale de gen, numar si caz.
Numarul este categoria gramaticala care se recunoaste cel mai uşor, datorita desinenţei -s, specifică pentru
forma de plural a substantivelor. Din punct de vedere al ideii de număr, substantivele in limba engleza se
împart in numărabile (Count nouns) si nenumărabile (Mass nouns). Substantivele numărabile sunt de obicei
variabile ca forma (Variable nouns), având atât singular cit si plural, iar cele nenumărabile sunt de regula
invariabile ca forma (Invariable nouns), având forma numai de singular sau numai de plural.
TASKS
A. Use these collective nouns to complete the sentences that follow: audience, crew, enemy, family,
gang, government, media, public, staff, team

1. Take cover. The ……………….. are attacking.

2. Do you think Liverpool are the best ……………………. in Europe?
3. Dad is out but the rest of the ……………….……….. are at home.
4. The……………………………… has decided to increase taxes.
5. The ship sank but the …………..……….. are safe.
6. The office is closed. The ………… are on strike.
7. The house was surrounded and the ……………….…… were arrested.
8. The ……………………….…. is much bigger than at last night’s performance.
9. The railways should provide a better service for the traveling …………….…………
10. Some sports stars are very badly treated by the newspapers and other ………………..

B.Write the plural of the following nouns:

1. address 4. witch 7. face 10. man
2. reply 5. box 8. tomato 11.child
3. toy 6. fish 9. deer 12. tooth

I.3. Verbul (The verb)

Definiţie. Verbul este partea de vorbire care exprima acţiuni, procese sau stări; are categorii gramaticale de
persoana şi număr comune cu alte parţi de vorbire şi categoriile specifice de timp, mod, aspect şi diateza;
îndeplineşte funcţia sintactica de predicat.

I..3.1. Categoriile gramaticale ale verbului

In limba engleza, verbul are forme gramaticale determinate de categoriile specifice de timp, aspect, diateza
si mod si de categoriile nespecifice de persoana şi număr. In funcţie de prezenţa sau absenţa categoriilor de
timp persoana şi număr, formele verbale în limba engleza se împart in forme personale si nepersonale.
Formele personale ale verbului (Finite Forms of the Verb) sunt modurile indicativ si subjonctiv. La aceste
forme, verbul este marcat pentru a exprima categoriile de timp, mod, diateza, aspect, persoana si număr, iar
din punct de vedere sintactic, ele pot forma singure predicatul şi se acorda in număr si persoana cu
subiectul.
Formele nepersonale ale verbului (Non-Finite Forms of the Verb) sunt infinitivul, Gerund-ul (Gerunziul),
participiul prezent si participiul trecut. Aceste forme nu au categoriile de timp, persoana si număr si nu pot
forma singure predicatul propoziţiei.

I. 3.2. Timpul (Tense)

Categoria gramaticala a timpului (Tense), categorie specifică verbelor, se refera la ordinea evenimentelor in
timp, aşa cum este perceputa aceasta de vorbitor in momentul vorbirii.
Momentul in care are loc actul de vorbire este momentul prezent (now). Faţa de acest moment, care
constituie axa de referinţa a prezentului, unele evenimente sunt:
a) anterioare, când ele au loc înainte de momentul vorbirii (evenimentele sunt amintite de vorbitor):
Present Perfect;
b) posterioare f aţa de momentul vorbirii (evenimentele fiind anticipate de vorbitor, deoarece vor
avea loc intr-un moment posterior momentului vorbirii Future;
c) simultane cu momentul vorbirii (având loc in acelaşi timp) Present.

Considerând momentul vorbirii punctul prezent, vorbitorul isi poate aminti un eveniment care a avut loc la
un moment anterior momentului vorbirii (then). In raport cu acest moment amintit then, care se refera la
trecut, alte evenimente pot fi:
a) anterioare momentului trecut then: Past Perfect;
b) simultane cu then: Past Tense;
c) posterioare: Future in the Past.
De asemenea, in momentul vorbirii (now), vorbitorul poate anticipa anumite evenimente (posterioare
momentului vorbirii). In raport cu un anume eveniment posterior momentului prezent (axa de referinţa a
viitorului). Alte evenimente pot fi:
a) anterioare: Future Perfect;
b) simultane: Future;
c) posterioare: engleza nu are marca formala pentru aceste evenimente.
In analiza timpului trebuie astfel luate in consideraţie urmatoarele elemente:
a) momentul vorbirii
b) momentul acţiunii;
c) axa sau momentul de referinţa.
In f uncţie de cele trei elemente — momentul vorbirii, momentul acţiunii şi momentul de referinţa — limba
engleza cunoaşte urrnatorul sistem de timpuri:
— pe axa prezentului: Present, Present Perfect, Future;
— pe axa trecutului: Past Tense, Past Perfect, Future in the Past;
— pe axa viitorului: Future, Future Perfect

I.3.2.1. Timpul prezent simplu (Present Tense Simple)

Definiţie. Prezentul simplu desemnează un eveniment (o acţiune sau stare) care se întâmpla simultan cu
momentul vorbirii (prezentul instantaneu) sau care include momentul vorbirii (prezentul generic şi
habitual).
Forma. Din punct de vedere al formei, prezentul simplu este identic cu infinitivul, la toate persoanele
singular si plural, cu excepţia persoanei a III-a singular, care adaugă -(e).s: Ex: I learn/ You learn/ He, She
learns/ We learn/ You learn/ They learn

TASKS

A. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate form of the verb in brackets at the present simple tense:

He (live)……… in Belgravia in London’s West End. He’s very rich, and he (own)…………. the company
Office Blocks International. Every morning the young Lord (have)……….. breakfast in bed and
(read)……. the newspapers. He (get)…………. up at ten o’clock and usually (go)……… for a walk in
Hyde Park. He (have)………… lunch at his club. He sometimes (meet)……. the directors of OBI, and they
(talk)…….. about the company’s plans. In the afternoon, Lord Stonebury and his friends (play)…… golf.
Then they (have)………. a few drinks. Or sometimes, he and his girl friend (go)…….for a drive in his
sports car. After dinner Lord Stonebury (go)…….. to a night club or a casino with one of his friends. They
(get)……….. home at about two o’clock.

B. Find and correct the verbs in the present tense that are mistaken in the text below:

Dear John,
Thank you for your very interesting letter. I am very pleased to be your pen friend. Are you really have a
swimming pool in the garden? It sound wonderful. As you know from my advertisement, I have 17 years
old and came from Cartagena in Chile. I’ve got two sisters and they is both older than me. My father own a
small factory paper but my mother don’t work. We living in a house outside the city. I enjoying playing
football and I am like science-fiction films.
I. Look at this learner’s text. Match the teacher’s ticks and corrections 1-10 to rules a) – f) below

C. Put the verbs into brackets into simple present or present continuous tense:
1. What Tom (think)……….. of the Budget?
2. He (think)……….. it most unfair.
I (agree)…………….. with him.
3. How much……. this one (cost)…………?
It (cost)…………… forty pence.
4. Look at that crowd. I (wonder)………….. what they (wait)……….. for.
5. This story is about a boy who (make)…… friends with a snake which he (find)………..
in the garden. Then he (go)………. away but he (not forget)……… the snake and some
years later he (return)……… and (look)……….. for it.
6. He (find)………. the snake who (recognize)……….. its old friend and (coil)…………
round him affectionately. But, unfortunately, the snake is by now a full-grown boa-
constrictor and its embrace (kill)………… the poor boy.
The snake (feel)…………. sorry about this?
I (not know)…………... The story (end)…………….. there.
7. How ………..you (end)………… a letter that (begin)……….., “Dear Sir?”
I always (put)……….., “Yours truly”, but Tom (prefer)…………. “Yours
faithfully”.

D. Look at this learner’s text. Match the teacher’s ticks and corrections 1-10 to rules a) – f) below
My name is Kim and I’m Korean. My family is living in lives….b)
an apartment near the centre of Seoul, and they all 1………………..
1 love the city except me. They 2 are thinking that 2 think………...
cities are exciting, but 3 I’m not agreeing with them; I 3 don’t agree ......
4 am preferring quieter towns or villages. Anyway, 4 prefer………..
just this month I 5 work for a small travel agency; I 5 ‘m working….
6 want to go traveling in Europe next month but 7 I’m 6 …………….
needing to earn some money first. 8 I’m thinking of doing 7 need……….
a course when I come back from Europe – my English 8……………..
9 gets better so maybe I can study abroad next time. 9 is getting…….
That’s very expensive, of course. Perhaps that 10 is 10 depends……
depending on how much I can earn – and my parents!

Note:
a) use the present continuous to talk about changing situations
b) use the present simple to talk about a permanent situation
c) use the present simple with a “thought” or “feeling” verb
d) use the present simple with verbs describing what things are, what they are like and what they
possess
e) use the present continuous for a temporary situation
use the present continuous for a temporary thought
f) use the present continuous for a temporary thought

I.3.2.2. Timpul trecut simplu (Past Tense Simple)

Definiţie. Past Tense, aspectul simplu, desemneaza un eveniment definit care a avut loc pe axa trecutului
(evenimentul este amintit in momentul prezent). Past Tense simplu este folosit pentru a exprima o acţiune
săvârşita si încheiata intr-un moment trecut:
Forma. Marca timpului Past Tense simplu este, la verbele regulate, -ed.
We listened to the concert last night. Am ascultat concertul aseara.
In cazul verbelor neregulate este folosita forma a II-a. I wrote the letter to Mary. Am scris scrisoarea
Mariei.

Verbe neregulate
Participiu Traducerea
Infinitiv Past Tense trecut infinitivuiui Observatii
be was/were been a fi
beat beat beaten- a bate
become became become a deveni
begin began begun a incepe
blow blew blown a suf!a, a bate
break broke broken a (se) sparge
breed bred bred a creste, a educa
bring brought brought a'aduce
build buili buili a construi
buy bought bo Ugh I a cumpara
catch caught caught a prinde
choose chose chosen a alege
come came come a veni
cost cost cost a costa
cut cut cut a taia
deal dealt dealt a trata, a se
ocupa de
do did done a face
dra w drevy drawn a trage, a desena
dream dreamt dreamt a visa R. dreamed — in spe-
cial in engleza ameri-
drink drank drunk a bea drunken — adj.
drive drove- driven a mina, a sofa
dwell dwelt dwell a locui R. dwelled (rar)
in engleza americana
eat ate eaten a manca engl. britanica,: ate
(et); engl.
americana: ate (eit)
fall fell fallen a cadea
feed fed fed a hrani .
feel felt fell a (se) sirati
fight fought fought a (se) lupta
find, found found a gasi
fly . flew flown a zbura
forbid forbad(e) forbidden a interzice
forget forgot forgotten a uita
forgive forgave forgiven a ierta
freeze froze frozen a ingheta
get got got a primi, a obţine engl. americana:
get, got, gotten
tgive gave given a da
go went gone a merge
grow grew grown a creste
have had had a avea
hear heard heard a auzi
hide hid hidden a (se) ascunde Partioipiul trecut si
hid (rar)
hit hit hit a lovi
hold held held a |ine
hurt hurl hurt a lovi, a răni, a
durea
keep kept kept a |ine, a pastra
know knew known a §ti, a cunoasjte
lay laid laid a pune, a aseza
lead led led a conduce
learn learnt learnt a invata R. learned —
engl.
americana; adj.:
leave left left , a pleca, a lasa a learned [k:nid] man
lend lent lent a da cu
împrumut
lei let let a lasa, a permite
light lit lit a aprinde R. lighted
lie lay lain a zacea, a se afla R. lie, lied = a min|i
lose lost lost a pierde
make made made a face
mean meant meant a insemna
meet met met a (se) intilni
mow mowed mown, mowed a cosi
pay paid paid a plati
put put put a punt
read. read read a citi
ring rang rung a suna
run ran run a fugi
say said said a spune pers. Ill singular says
i [sez]
see saw seen a vedea
sell sold sold a vinde
send sent sent a. trimite
show showed shown a arata Uneori ortografiat
shew, shewed,
shut shut shut a include shewn
sing sang sung a einta
sit sat sat a sedea
sleep slept slept a dormi
smell smell s melt a mirosi R. smelled —
engleza americana
speak spoke spoken a vorbi
speed sped sped a grăbi, a §i R.: speeded
accelera
spell spelt spelt a ortografia R. spelled — engleza
americana
spend spent spent a cheltui; a
petrece
spread spread spread a (se) întinde
steal stole stolen a fura, a se furisa
stick stuck stuck a lipi
swim swam swum a inota
take took taken a lua
teach taught taught. a invafa (pe
altui), a preda
tell told told a spune, a
povesti
think thought thought a (se) gindi '
throw threw thrown a arunca
understandd understood understood a înţelege
wear wore worn a purta
weep wept wept a plinge
wet wet wet a uda si R. wetted
win won won a cistiga
write wrote written a scrie

TASKS
A. Fill in each gap with a verb from the box in the past tense simple. (The text below describes an
unsuccessful driving test.)

be feel move pay push say run say stop try

On my first test, I 1…………. out of petrol. Shortly after the restart from the emergency stop, the car
2……….. again, although I 3………… five times to restart.
“No”, I 4………….. to the examiner. “It won’t start.” The examiner 5……………. into the driving seat,
and I 6…………….. the car to the nearest service station, where I 7……………… for the petrol. “This is
not your fault and will not affect whether you pass the test”, he 8…………….., but I 9……………..
terrified and 10…………… not surprised to fail for lack of observation.

B. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct tense:

1. Ann sees Paul putting on his coat and says: Where you (go ) , Paul?
2. I (go ) to buy some cigarettes. You (want) an evening paper?
3. Mary ( see ) Peter standing at the bus stop.
4. What bus you (wait ) for?
 5. I usually (go ) to work by car, don’t you?
6. Yes, but the car (belong ) to my mother and she sometimes (want ) it.
7. She ( use ) it today to take Tom to the dentist.

C. Put the verbs in brackets into the simple past or past continuous:
I( walk ) along the Piccadily when I (realize ) that a man with a ginger beard,
whom I had seen three times already that afternoon, ( follow ) me.
To make quite sure, I (walk ) on quickly, (turn ) right, then left and (stop ) suddenly at a
shop window.
In a few minutes the man with the beard (appear ) and (stop ) at another shop window.

I.3.2.3. Viitorul simplu (Shall/Will Future)

Definiţie. Viitorul simplu desemnează un eveniment posterior faţa de momentul vorbirii. Viitorul simplu
este un viitor pur, indicând doar ca acţiunea are loc 'intr-un moment viitor, mai apropiat sau adeseori mai
îndepărtat de momentul vorbirii.
Forma. In structura viitorului simplu intra verbul auxiliar shall la persoana I singular si plural, will la
persoana a II-a şi a Ill-a singular şi plural şi infinitivul scurt al verbului de conjugat:
I shall go to the seaside tomorrow./ Vom merge la mare maine.

TASK
Decide if the underlined verbs in the sentences below refer to present time (p) or future time (f):

1. I’m spending a few weeks with an uncle in the States this summer. _f_
2. I can’t find Barbara. Maybe she’s meeting the others for lunch. ___
3. When you see her, could you tell her to give me a call? ___
4. The show starts at 8.30 every day except Monday. ___
5. I hope everyone’s ready. We leave first thing in the morning. ___

I.4. ADJECTIVUL (The Adjective)

Definiţie. Adjectivul este partea de vorbire care exprima o calitate a unui obiect (an interesting lecture, an
old man); are categoria gramaticala a comparaţiei: He is taller than his brother.; îndeplineşte funcţiile
sintactice de atribut, apoziţie, nume predicativ, element predicativ suplimentar.

Adjectivele monosilabice formează comparativul si superlativul in mod sintetic. Ele primesc -(e)r la
comparativ şi the -(e)st la superlativ:
small —smaller —the smallest
short — shorter — the shortest

Adjectivele formate din d o u a sau mai multe silabe formează comparativul si superlativul analitic cu
ajutorul lui more si the most:
careful — more careful — the most careful
difficult — more difficult — the most difficult

TASKS
A. Write the comparative and superlative for the following adjectives:
1. thin –
2. beautiful –
3. nice –
4. good –
5. bad –

B. Fill in the blanks with you, your, they or them

“_____ ’ve put the price of stamps up again.”
“Oh, ______ haven’t, have ______? ________ seem to do it more and more often. ______ can buy more
than a few stamps at a time, or else ________ have to buy extra 1p stamps to add to all 7 letters.”
“I know. And it’s got so expensive! Nowadays_____ think twice before _______ write a letter. Of course
___’ve got special rates for businesses – it’s only ordinary people that pay the extra.”
“I know. It makes ______ wonder why we keep electing ______.”

C. Fill in the blanks with like or as :

1. He died ……..he lived, fighting.

2. It’s mended, …….you can see.
3. In Paris,…………in Rome, traffic is heavy.
4. His eyes are ………. knives.
5. My brother isn’t at all……… me.
6. She left……… she came, silently.
7. You’re shy, …… me.
8. Your smile is……….. your sister’s.
9. ……… I said, you’re too late.

D. Choose between all and everything:

a. I hurry to laugh at ……... for fear of having to cry.

b. I can resist ……….... except temptation.
c. You can only have power over people so long as you don’t take………... away from
them.
d. They say …..… in the world is good for something.
i. Life is like nothing, because it is…………….

E. Insert a, an, the, my, his, her, our, your, their:

1. He took off ………..……. coat and set to work.

2. Why are you standing with …………….….hand in ………..…….pockets?
3. At most meeting people vote by raising…………….…….right hands.
4. He tore ……………………trousers getting over a barbed wire fence.
5. She pulled…………….………sleeve to attract his attention.
6. He stroked …………….…….chin thoughtfully.
7. If you are too hot why don’t you take off…………….…….coat?
8. He pointed to a woman in……………..…….her green dress.
9. You’ll strain …………………eyes if you read in …………….…….bad light.
10. Leave…………….coats in ………..cloakroom; don’t bring them into………..theatre.

F.Insert a, an, the, or my, his, her, our, their if necessary.

1. At most meetings ….. people vote by raising….. right hands.

2. There was a shot and a policeman came out with….. blood running down …. face.
3. We shook ….. hands with …… host.
4. You’ll strain …. eyes if you read in ……. bad light.
5. He is …. throughly selfish man; he wouldn’t lift…… finger to help anyone.
6. He was …..very tall man with ….. dark hair and….. small beard, but I couldn’t see …..
eyes because he was wearing ….. dark glasses.
7. He stroked……chin thoughtfully.
8. He pointed to a woman in ….. green dress.
9. He has …… horrible job; I wouldn’t like to be in ……. shoes.
10. Brother and sister were quite unlike each other. He had …. fair hair; …. hair was dark
and straight.
11. I saw him raise…… right hand and take ……. oath.
12. I have …. headache.

G.Insert the necessary capital letters in the following passage:

professor arnold smith, who has spent a lifetime studying prehistoric remains, claims that the bones he
unearthed in the californian desert area last may are those of a man-like creature existing millions of
years ago, probably at a time when the pacific ocean covered much more of the surface of this part of
the american continent . professor smith is to give a talk on the subject on bbc television on Monday,
4th april, in the series “where did we come from?” this is to be followed by a discussion with members
of the lost atlantic society whose president, colonel arthur stone, contends that california is in fact a
part of the legendary city, the remainder of which lies hidden under the sea.

II. NEGATION AND ILLOCCUTIONARY ACTS

1. Illocutionary acts - definition

2. Sentence – definition – 1 negation examples

3. Sentence negators: categories:

f. particle no
g. adverbs
h. pronouns
i. any
j. affixes

4. Degrees of negativity
d. week vs. strong negation
e. emphatic negatives
f. semantic changes

5. Lexical negativity
6. Sentence negation – syntactic functions
7. The negation of the verb in expressing / using tenses at the indicative mood
8. Tests of negativity
a. question tags
b. yes/ no questions

9. Tasks

Illocutionary acts - definition

The English language is used for specific communication purposes, in various registers, such as: the
English used for business, finance, journalism, advertising, psychology, sociology, etc.

Definition: The illocutionary or communicative acts are those represented by the process of making
statements, asking questions, giving directives with the aim of getting the hearer to carry out some
action, making an offer or promise, thanking or expressing an exclamation.

Ex: I saw Susan in London last year.

1. Sentence

Definition: The basic unit for the expression of interpersonal and experiential meanings is the
independent clause, equivalent for the traditional “simple sentence”. It is also connected with the idea
of predication.

Ex: Your English seems to be very good.

 Sentence negation is given by the use of negators such as the particle “no/not”, negative adverbs or
pronouns.
Ex: The readers did not believe that the story was true.

The readers never believed that the story was true.

The readers hardly believed that the story was true.

None of the readers believed that the story was true.

Few of the readers believed that the story was true.

Inherent negation with stylistic function:

Ex: The readers were unable to believe that the story was true.

The readers were too smart to believe that the story was true.

The readers did not believe that the story was true.

Forms of negative sentences:

A. Declarative negative: I won’t buy any cakes.
B. Interrogative negative: Won’t you buy some cakes?
C. Imperative negative : Don’t buy any cakes!

2. Sentence negation – syntactic functions

• Subject: Nothing is ever expected of him.
No one saw him.
• Object: We saw no one.
We heard nothing.
I lend my car to no one.
• Adverbial: We drove to nowhere.

3. Sentence negators. Categories

Forming negative statements – when you want to say that something is not true, is not happening or is
not the case, you normally use a negative statement
a. Negative adverb - not
ex: Not many people were present at the wedding.
Not anyone who writes poems is a poet.
Not a single man was killed.
“All that glitters is not gold.”
“All men are not born to reign.”
“Reason is given to all men but all men do not know how to use it.”

b. Negative Adverb/ indefinite place adverb (nowhere)

Ex: There’s almost nowhere left to go.
I never knew what she meant. (never + verb = emphatic use)

c. General determiner – NO - which is used in front of singular and plural noun groups to
state that something does not exist.
Ex: There was no money for an operation.
We had no union.
He has no ambition.
I could see no tracks.
 d. Negative Pronouns (none)/ Indefinite pronouns (no one, nothing, nobody)
ex: I waited for comments but none came.
None of as a quantifier
None of the townspeople had ever seen such weather.
None of this has happened without our consent.

Nobody in her house knows any English. Nobody knew the truth.
There’s nothing I can do. Nothing happened.

e. Any; anybody anywhere, anyhow

Ex: He didn’t say anything.
No one said anything.
He didn’t want to go anywhere.
Jane wasn’t so pleased to listen the lecture anyhow.

f. Affixes – prefixes: A, Anti, Counter, De, Dis, Ex, Il, Ir, Im, In, Mal, Mis, Non, Un

A prefix such as un-, dis- can be added to the beginning of some words to give them the
opposite meaning

Ex: Jane was unhappy. She unpacked.

The footpath was invisible.
There’s enormous inefficiency in the system.
He has reached an illogical conclusion.
I disliked change of any kind.
He gave a look of disapproval.
It was a peaceful, non-violent protest.
The match was a non- event.
They were completely helpless.
Many of them were speechless.

Broad negatives - adverbs: barely, scarcely, rarely, and seldom

If they are put in initial position in the sentence this process triggers subject – predicate inversion – in
formal or literary English

Ex: I could scarcely believe my eyes. Scarcely could I believe my eyes.

Examiners were seldom unkind.
The new pressure group is barely six months old.
The office was hardly ever empty.
The lagoons are rarely deep.
The results were scarcely encouraging.

4. Degrees of negativity
a. week vs. strong negation
ex: I didn’t miss anyone.
I missed no one.

b. emphatic negatives that triggers syntactic change subject – predicate/ auxiliary verb
ex: Never (before) have I met anyone so strange.
I haven’t ever met anyone so strange.

5. Lexical negativity
The process of negation is given by the use of one category of negators (particle “no/not” attached to
the auxiliary verb or the use of a negative adverb or pronoun):
Ex:
John isn’t too smart, in fact anybody in their family is so.
I don’t know what has become of her, I haven’t seen her in years.
Help me, please! I can’t budge this rock.
They say that this doctor has never studied anything anywhere.
Nobody told us anything to any of us.
I’m sure that Mark didn’t lift a finger to call me.
I didn’t sleep a wink last night.
I didn’t touch a drop ever since I have this ulcer.

The negation of the verb in expressing / using tenses at the indicative mood
Negatives of tenses

For the simple present tense negative we use does not + infinitive for the third person and do not +
infinitive for the other persons.
Both are usually contracted in speech: he doesn’t work; you don’t work
The simple past tense makes its negative with did not (didn’t) + infinitive: he/ we/ / they didn’t work
All other tenses are formed with auxiliaries, and the negative is formed by putting not after the auxiliaries.
Contractions are usual in speech:
Ex:
I haven’t seen him.
It won’t be easy.
I shan’t be here tomorrow.
He won’t drink wine.
They hadn’t applied for visas.

The present continuous tense and the perfect tenses can be contracted in two ways:
Ex:
He is not coming./ He isn’t coming. / He’s not coming.
I have not seen it./ I haven’t seen it. / I’ve not seen it.

The future tense is normally contracted to won’t but I’ll is also possible.
Ex:
He’ll not see you tomorrow./ He won’t see you tomorrow.

In English a negative sentence can have only one negative expression in it. So, never, no, none, nobody, no
one, nothing, hardly, hardly ever etc. are used with an affirmative verb.
Ex:
He ate nothing. He didn’t eat anything.
He never complains. He doesn’t ever complain.
We have seen no one. We haven’t seen anyone.
They hardly spoke at all. They hardly ever spoke. They didn’t speak much.

Double negation – Unlike some languages, standard national forms of English (British, American,
Canadian, Australian) do not favour multiple negation that is a succession of nuclear negative items in one
clause, although this is a feature of some dialects of English. Instead, the first negative item is followed
throughout the rest of the clause by non-assertive forms (any-)

Ex: not many Spaniards have any knowledge of bull-fighting.

Most Spaniards have some knowledge of bull- fighting.
Neighbours should not be uncooperative.
Neighbours should be cooperative.

Tests of negativity

In question tags - these are short addition to sentences asking for agreement or confirmation

A. After negative statement we use the ordinary interrogative

 Ex: You didn’t see him, did you?
Ann can’t swim, can she?
Peter doesn’t smoke, does he?
Bill didn’t want to go, did he?
James wasn’t driving the car, was he?
There wasn’t enough time, was there?
Ann hasn’t got colour TV, has she?

B. After affirmative statements we use the negative interrogative

Ex: Peter helped you, didn’t he?

“You are going to do this, aren’t you?” “Yes.”
“David’s is quite a nice school, isn’t it?” “Yes, it is.”
Mary was there, was she?

Note that statements containing words such as: neither, nor, none, no one, nobody, nothing,
scarcely, barely, hardly, seldom are treated like negative statements and followed by an
ordinary interrogative tag

Ex: None of your friends liked the film, did they?

Nothing was said, was it?
Peter hardly ever goes to parties, does he?

When the subject of the sentence is no one, nobody, anyone, anybody, none, neither we use the pronoun
THEY as the subject of the tag

Ex: I don’t suppose anyone will volunteer, will they?

None of the bottles are broken, are they?
Neither of them complained, did they?

INTONATION: When question tags are used, the speaker doesn’t normally need information but merely
expects agreement. These tags are therefore normally said with a falling intonation, as in statements.
Sometimes, however, the speaker does want information. He is not quite sure that the statement is true, and
wants to be reassured. In this case, the question tag is said with a rising intonation and the important word
in the first sentence is stressed, normally with a rise of pitch.

yes/ no questions
A. Questions requiring the answer yes or no In these questions the auxiliary comes first

Ex: Do you smoke? Yes, I do./ No, I don’t.

The answer without the auxiliary is less polite

Do you understand my question?

Didn’t you meet George in France?
Am I wrong?
Hasn’t she got a car?

Agreements and disagreements with remarks

Ex: Tom drinks too much. Yes, he does.
Disagreements with negative remarks
Ex: I’m not getting fatter. Yes, you are.
Agreements with negative remarks
Ex: It wouldn’t take long. No, it wouldn’t.
Disagreements with affirmative remarks
Ex: We have plenty of time. No, we haven’t.
LONG (UNCONTRACTED) FORMS
Indicative Mood / Tense Aspect
Simple/ Affirmative
Simple/ Negative
------------------------------------
Continuous/ Affirmative
Continuous/ Negative
Present ------------------------------------
Perfect/ Affirmative
Perfect/ Negative
------------------------------------
Perfect continuous/ Affirmative
Perfect continuous/ Negative
Simple / Affirmative
Simple/ Negative
------------------------------------
Continuous / Affirmative
Past Continuous/ Negative
------------------------------------
Perfect / Affirmative
Perfect/ Negative
------------------------------------
Continuous / Affirmative
Continuous/ Negative
Simple / Affirmative
Simple/ Negative
------------------------------------
Continuous / Affirmative
Continuous/ Negative
Future ------------------------------------
Perfect / Affirmative
Perfect/ Negative
------------------------------------
Perfect continuous / Affirmative
Perfect continuous / Negative
CONTRACTED (SHORT) FORMS
Indicative Mood / Tense Aspect
Simple/ Affirmative
Simple/ Negative
------------------------------------
Continuous/ Affirmative
Continuous/ Negative
Present ------------------------------------
Perfect/ Affirmative
Example
He works
He does not work
------------------------------------
He is working
He is not working
------------------------------------
He has worked
He has not worked
------------------------------------
He has been working
He has not been working
He worked
He did not work
------------------------------------
He was working
He was not working
------------------------------------
He had worked
He had not worked
------------------------------------
He had been working
He had not been working
He will work
He will not work
------------------------------------
He will be working
He will not be working
------------------------------------
He will have worked
He will not have worked
------------------------------------
He will have been working
He will not have been working
Example
He works
He does not work / He doesn’t
work
------------------------------------
He is working / He’s working
He is not working / He’s not
working / He isn’t working
------------------------------------
He has worked / He’s worked
 Perfect/ Negative
------------------------------------
Perfect continuous/ Affirmative
Perfect continuous/ Negative
Simple/ Affirmative
Simple/ Negative
------------------------------------
Continuous/ Affirmative
Past Continuous/ Negative
------------------------------------
Perfect/ Affirmative
Perfect/ Negative
------------------------------------
Continuous/ Affirmative
Continuous/ Negative
Simple/ Affirmative
Future
Simple/ Negative
Continuous/ Affirmative
Continuous/ Negative
------------------------------------
Perfect/ Affirmative
Future
Perfect/ Negative
------------------------------------
Perfect continuous/ Affirmative
Perfect continuous/ Negative
He has not worked / He hasn’t
worked / He’s not worked
------------------------------------
He has been working/ He’s been
working
He has not been working/ He
hasn’t been working/ He’s not
been working
He worked
He did not work / He didn’t work
------------------------------------
He was working
He was not working / He wasn’t
working
------------------------------------
He had worked
He had not worked / He hadn’t
worked
------------------------------------
He had been working
He had not been working / He
hadn’t been working
He will work / He’ll work
He will not work / He won’t work
He will be working/ He’ll be
working
He will not be working / He
won’t be working / He’ll not be
working
------------------------------------
He will have worked / He’ll have
worked
He will not have worked / He
won’t have worked / He’ll not
have worked
------------------------------------
He will have been working /
He’ll have been working
He will not have been working /
He won’t have been working /
He’ll not have been working
Note: In speech, auxiliaries are normally contracted in affirmative and negative.
’s may mean is or has: he’s going = he is going ; he’s gone = he has gone
’d may mean had or would : he’d paid = he had paid ; he’d like to come = he would like to come
Auxiliaries are normally unstressed. The stress falls on the main verb.

TASK 1

Explain the type of negation in each of the sentences in italics:

“Don’t you know the actual name of the firm or association that employed her?”
“No, I don’t, I’m afraid.”
“Did she ever mention relatives?”
“No. I gather she was a widow and had lost her husband many years ago. A bit of an invalid he’d been, but
she never talked much about him.”
“Didn’t she mention where she came from – what part of the country? ”
“I don’t think she was a Londoner. Came from somewhere up north, I should say.”
“Didn’t you feel there was anything – well, mysterious about her?”

Lejeune felt a doubt as he spoke. If she was a suggestible woman – but Mrs. Coppins did not take
advantage of the opportunity offered to her.

“Well, I can really say that I did. Certainly not from anything she ever said. The only thing that perhaps
might have me wonder was her suitcase. Good quality it was, but not new.”

Adapted from Agatha Christie, The Pale Horse

Vocabulary

actual (adj.) = real, existing in fact: at the time being

to mention (v.) = to notice briefly, to remark, to name
to gather (v.) = to learn (know) by inference, to collect, to assemble
widow (n.) = a woman who has lost her husband and has not married again
a bit (n.) = a bite, a small piece
suggestible (adj.) = capable of being influenced by suggestion
to take advantage (v.) = to have a profit
suitcase (n.)= an easily portable oblong traveling – bag for carrying suits or clothes

TASK 2
Turn the following sentences from the affirmative to negative by using for each situation three types of
negation: the particle no/not; a negative adverb; a negative pronoun:

1. The readers believed that the story was true.

2. They had applied for visas.
3. You saw him.
4. Mary was here.
5. You know the name of the firm.
6. She mentioned the address.
7. I can really say that.
8. He mentioned something about his relatives.
9. I think she was a Londoner.
10. They knew all about him.

TASK 3
Turn the following sentences from the affirmative to negative by using for each situation three types of
negation: the particle no/not; a negative adverb; a negative pronoun, if the case:

1. I have seen something like that before.

 2. You would better tell me the truth.
3. The barrister was the best in town.
4. There are limits in everything.
5. Everything that glitters is gold.
6. See you soon!
7. Mother told me that she was at home.
8. You should learn all the chapter.
9. The students were nice.
10. John has been lately in that pub.

III. 1. TRANSLATE INTO ROMANIAN:

1. Communication, also called execution, is the third step in the public relations process. Five possible
objectives at this stage are message exposure, accurate dissemination of the message, acceptance of the
message, attitude change, and change in overt behavior.
Successful communication involves interaction, or shared experience, because the message must
be not only sent but received. The larger the audience, the greater the number of barriers to communication.
Because audiences have different approaches to receiving messages, communicators must tailor
the message to get the recipient’s attention. They need to understand the audience’s mental state. Messages
for passive audiences must have style and creativity, while messages for an audience actively seeking
information must have more sophisticates content. In either case, the effective message will raise the
audience’s “need” level by providing some obvious benefit. (Wilcox, D., Public Relations, Strategies and
Tactics, 2004)
2. The speechwriter’s role is often a hidden one; the final speech should reflect the personality and
voice patterns of the speaker, not the writer. The speech should say something of value; concentrate on one
or two main themes; include facts; be influenced by the audience; and be clear. The speech should include
an introduction, statement of purpose, development, statement of secondary theme, enunciation of the
principal point, pause on plateau, restatement of the theme, and a brief conclusion.
Television is the dominant form of visual communication in contemporary life. News releases can be
provided to TV stations in printed form, like those submitted to newspapers; as prepared scripts; or as video
news releases (VNRs). VNRs can be expanded into infomercials. Cable television news has provided a new
outlet for public relations materials. (Wilcox, D., Public Relations, Strategies and Tactics, 2004)
3. A conversation face-to-face between two persons is widely regarded as the most effective form of
interpersonal communication. This is certainly true in the world of work. The chemistry of personality that
can develop by calling on a client or colleague is not easily defined but can be tremendously valuable.
Telephone or face-to-face conversation also offers immediate clarification and feedback so that
misunderstandings are minimized. Although e-mail also offers this immediacy and can emulate some
characteristics of conversation, it is no substitute. Because the written word does not convey nuance or
emotional tone, it can be easily misconstrued. E-mail messages often appear harsh and cut, leading to
communication problems. (Wilcox, D., Public Relations, Strategies and Tactics, 2004)
5. Basically, a news release is a simple document whose purpose is the dissemination of
information in ready-to-publish form. Editors of print and broadcast media to whom news releases are sent
judge them on the basis of news interest for their audience and timeliness, and in some instances on their
adaptability to the medium’s form. No payment is made to the publication or station if the material appears
in print or on the air. If an organization or individual purchases space in a publication to present its
material, this is a paid advertisement, and the purchaser controls the content.
Releases should be prepared so that the media can relay their news content to audiences easily,
with confidence in their accuracy. Editors want the main facts stated succinctly in the opening paragraph of
a release, for quick recognition. (Wilcox, D., Public Relations, Strategies and Tactics, 2004)
6. Hence William Hague’s repeated accusations that Tony Blair and Labour are ”soft” on asylum seekers,
and foreigners in general. For asylum is only the start of it. What the focus groups will also have shown
both parties is that once people are convinced the Government is ”soft” on asylum seekers, they become
equally convinced that the Government is soft on foreigners in general; that Labour is failing to defend
British interests. The asylum issue thus links with hostility towards the EU, fears that the Government is
giving away powers to Europe and will take us into the single currency and weaken Britain even further,
and general insecurity about national strength. The EU is blamed for ”allowing” asylum seekers to roam
freely within it, and then for ”dumping” them on Britain. (The Observer, March 12, 2000)
7. ”The trees began softly to sing a hymn of twilight. The sun sank until slanted bronze rays struck the
forest. There was a lull in the noises of insects as if they had bowed their beaks and were making a
devotional pause. There was silence save for the chanted chorus of trees. Then, upon the stillness, there
suddenly broke a tremendous clangour of sounds. A crimson roar came from the distance.
The youth stopped. He was transfixed by this terrific medley of all noises. It was as if worlds were being
rendered. There was the ripping sound of musketry and the breaking crash of the artillery. Officers were
shouting. The brigade was hurrying briskly to be gulped into the infernal mouths of the war god. What
manner of men were they, anyhow? Ah, it was some wondrous breed! Or else they didn’t comprehend – the
fools. The youth, light-footed, was unconsciously in advance. His eyes still kept note of the clump of trees.
From all places near it the clannish yell of the enemy could be heard. The little flames of rifles leaped from
it. The song of the bullets was in the air and shells snarled among the treetops. One tumbled directly into
the middle of a hurrying group and exploded in crimson fury. There was an instant spectacle of a man,
almost over it, throwing up his hands to shield his eyes.
Other men, punched by bullets, fell in grotesque agonies. The regiment left a coherent trail of bodies. They
had passed into a clearer atmosphere. There was an effect like a revelation in the new appearance of the
landscape. Some men working madly at a battery were plain to them, and the opposing infantry's lines were
defined by the gray walls and fringes of smoke.
It seemed to the youth that he saw everything. Each blade of the green grass was bold and clear. The brown
or gray trunks of the trees showed each roughness of their surfaces. And the men of the regiment, with their
starting eyes and sweating faces, running madly, or falling, as if thrown headlong, to queer, heaped-up
corpses-all were comprehended. His mind took a mechanical but firm impression, so that afterward
everything was pictured and explained to him, save why he himself was there. But there was a frenzy made
from this furious rush. The men, pitching forward insanely, had burst into cheerings, moblike and barbaric,
but tuned in strange keys that can arouse the dullard and the stoic. It made a mad enthusiasm that, it
seemed, would be incapable of checking itself before granite and brass. There was the delirium that
encounters despair and death, and is heedless and blind to the odds. It is a temporary but sublime absence
of selfishness. And because it was of this order was the reason, perhaps, why the youth wondered,
afterward, what reasons he could have had for being there. He had been to touch the great death, and found
that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man. So it came to pass that as he trudged from the place
of blood and wrath his soul changed. He came from hot plowshares to prospects of clover tranquilly, and it
was as if hot plowshares were not. Scars faded as flowers. It rained. The procession of weary soldiers
became a bedraggled train, despondent and muttering, marching with churning effort in a through of liquid
brown mud under a low, wretched sky. Yet the youth smiled, for he saw that the world was a world for
him, though many discovered it to be made of oaths and walking sticks. He had rid himself of the red
sickness of battle. The sultry nightmare was in the past. He had been an animal blistered and sweating in
the heat and pain of war. He turned now with a lover’s thirst to images of tranquil skies, fresh meadows,
cool brooks – an existence of soft and eternal peace. Over the river a golden ray of sun came through the
hosts of leaden rain clouds.” (Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage)
7. In Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought, culture is defined etymologically as originating from Latin
colere, ‘inhabit’, ‘cultivate’, ‘protect’, ‘honour with worship’.
In anthropological terms, culture is a background for studying the way of life of a group of people. In 1871
the anthropologist Edwin Tylor defined it thus: ‘Culture or civilization...is that complex whole which
includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man
as a member of society.’
This definition takes European culture as the prototype for all other cultures. It suggests that ‘primitive’
cultures have to undergo a developmental process in order to be as ‘civilized’ as European culture.
“Such evolutionary schemes were later abandoned; anthropologists now treat culture as a neutral term used
to describe a system of ideas, values and behaviours. For a considerable period early this century, British
social anthropologists contrasted culture with society. In their aspirations for a social scientific approach,
culture was regarded as an arbitrary and vague term while ‘society’ was used to refer to functional roles,
structures and organizations. For American cultural anthropologists, however, culture was treated as
synonymous with society.”
When coupled with nature, culture is treated like nurture, which considers the degree to which human
thought and behaviour are affected by their environmental conditions rather than their biological make-up.
Within structuralist theory, which attempts to discover the ordering principles of the mind, the nature-
culture distinction has been transposed to chart the ways people make boundaries between what is
considered a part of society and what is seen to lie beyond it. It is humans that determine what is nature for
it is not something that is determined by itself. On this point, Marshall Sahlins has offered the useful
remark: ‘Nature is to culture what culture makes of nature.’
In the last half-century, two fascinating sociological phenomena have been, first, the interpenetration
(especially in the West) of such phenomenological views of culture-that is, that it comprises the whole
experience of everyday life-with the old critical notion that it was inherently to do with the arts, and with
‘high arts’ at that; and second, the extraordinary way in which Western mass culture (with all its ephemeral
and transitory ‘output’: television, advertising, fashion, pastimes, social activities) has colonized the entire
world far more successfully than the earlier ‘high culture’ of the imperialist West. Mass communications,
mass-production of artefacts and global marketing are the reasons, and they have begun to dictate the
‘cultural agenda’ of the entire world.
Until recently (and still in some universities and among other literary subcultures) the mass culture which
emerges from such developments has been despised as somehow inferior to the ‘high arts’ which alone
embody the notion of cultural excellence. The fear is ever-present that, in any society, because culture is
absorbed by a socialization process, and because the mass media occupy a central and powerful role in that
process, the output of the media may only reflect the culture of the dominant group who control it or
consume it. This would suffocate the cultural values of many people who do not subscribe to the dominant
view. This would be a tragedy, not because of its effects on the chattering class (who, ironically, would
now find their culture marginalized and made second best in exactly the way they formerly treated the
culture of the mass of the population) but, more seriously, because it led to the erosion and obliteration of
minority attitudes and the habits of mind of minority groups throughout the world.
Perhaps in the end, culture is not what we discuss but what we live. As a set of value-judgements about
beliefs and ways of life, particularly in the areas of social behaviour and intellectual activity, it is a
particularly human phenomenon (unless one assumes that other creatures make such judgements), and can
never be objective. It is an example of the hierarchical, categorizing impulse which is such a characterstic
feature of the human mind and also of our love of defining ourselves and others, and by defining,
excluding. In ancient Greece, Greek-speakers proclaimed that they were ‘cultured’ compared to
‘barbarians’ (those whose speech sounded like ‘bar-bar’); it is not recorded what barbarians thought of
Greeks. In other areas, at one time or another, to be ‘cultured’ has involved being a member of the Japanese
Imperial household, following Islam, being a middle-European intellectual, not being a Westerner,
preferring Beethoven to the Beatles, studying Arts rather than Sciences, rejecting all artefacts (physical or
intellectual) created by ‘dead, white, European males’, observing particular rules of social etiquette or, in
each case, being or doing just the opposite.
The 19th-century English poet and critic Matthew Arnold wrote (in Culture and Anarchy) that culture was
a ‘study of human perfection’-which he went on to define as the exercise of rationality as opposed to
instinct. (To be rational, in this definition, includes the rational awareness of the power, and ‘usefulness’, of
instinct.) A cultured person, for Arnold, enhanced his or her individual awareness, striving towards the goal
of moral and spiritual perfection. Seventy years after Arnold's book was published, and in the course of
pursuing ‘perfection’ of a different kind, Hermann Goering said (misquoting the poet Heinz Johst), ‘When I
hear the world culture I reach for my gun’. This perhaps epitomizes the ‘practical’ (uncultured?) person's
reaction to the narcissistic and fashion-bound scholasticism of which redefinitions of culture are such a
persistent, and egregious, example. (Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought)
8. In Ivory Tower or Grassroots, Margaret Laurence sums up the development of her fictional themes,
framed as political, in relation to her own experience: “My sense of social awareness, my feelings of anti-
imperialism, anti-colonialism, anti-authoritarianism had begun probably in embryo form in my own
childhood; they had been matured during my college years and immediately afterwards, in the North
Winnipeg of the Old Left; they had developed considerably through my African experience. It was not
very difficult to relate this experience to my own land, which had been under the colonial sway of Britain
once and now under the colonial sway of America. But these developing feelings also related very
importantly to my growing awareness of the dilemma and powerlessness of women, the tendency of
women to accept male definition of ourselves, to be self-depreciating and uncertain, and to rage inwardly.
The quest for physical and spiritual freedom, the quest for relationships of equality and communication –
these themes run through my fiction and are connected with the theme of survival, not more physical
survival, but a survival of the spirit, with human dignity and the ability to give and receive love.”(p.15)
9. Virginia Woolf shows in “Women and Fiction” that “the ordinary woman” gives support to “the
extraordinary”, the housewife/ the working woman to the writer/ the artist: “The extraordinary woman
depends on the ordinary woman. It is only when we know what were the conditions of the average
woman’s life-the number of her children, whether she had money of her own, if she had a room to herself,
whether she had help in bringing up her family, if she had servants, whether part of the housework was her
task-it is only when we can measure the way of life and the experience of life made possible to the
ordinary woman that we can account for the success or failure of the extraordinary woman as
writer.”(p.142 )

III. 2. TRANSLATE INTO ENGLISH:

1. Crearea imaginii de presa pornind de la o realitate obiectiva

Tipurile de discurs si implicit de argumentare creează imaginea in presa, indiferent de genul
jurnalistic cărora le aparţin. Realitatea obiectiva contextuala este receptata de jurnalişti/gatekeepers, care o
redau publicului ţinta pe baza unui tip de discurs pe care aceştia il considera pertinent, funcţie de o suma de
factori de ţin de registrul politic, economic si social. Discursul jurnalistic devine astfel modalitate de
influenţare, de schimbare a percepţiei si de persuasiune. Mesajul in presa suporta o dubla influenta: a
cauzelor care determina emitatorul si a reacţiei receptorului. Vizarea unui anumit tip de efect de către
jurnalist duce la o producere de sensuri limitate, bine definite si strict orientate. Selecţia lexicala si
semantica si contextualizarea orientează si structurează mesajul in strategia de comunicare de presa.
“Cu toate ca sunt relative fata de posibilităţile oferite de circumstante, aceste tactici traversatoare
nu asculta de legea locului. Ele nu sunt definite de el. In aceasta privinta nu sunt localizabile decat
strategiile tehnocrate (si scripturale) vizand crearea de locuri conforme cu anumite modele abstracte: ceea
ce le distinge pe unele de altele sunt tipurile de operatii in aceste spatii pe care strategiile sunt capabile sa
le produca, sa le defineasca si sa le impuna, pe cand tacticile pot numai sa le utilizeze, sa le manipuleze si
sa le deturneze.” 1
Ar fi deci demn de luat in considerare in ce masura strategia de comunicare jurnalistica si implicit
tactica abordata se concretizeaza in crearea de imagine a imigrantilor romani de etnie rroma in Marea
Britanie si ce loc ocupa acestia.
Ruth Wodack realizeaza o clasificare a tipurilor de discurs austriac la adresa imigrantilor din
aceasta tara dupa 1989 in tipuri de discurs care “fac diferenta” si cele orientate pe eul social ca un mod de
existenta si justificare a strategiilor de argumentatie in discursul care prejudiciaza. Acesta se bazeaza pe
existenta unor grupuri distincte: <in group>/(grup) comunitate interna si <outgroup>/(grup) comunitate
externa.
“(…) The first consists of strategies of a group definition and construction, strategies which assist
in constituting a <we discourse> (the first step of a discourse of difference). The linguistic forms of
realising this constitution of an ingroup and outgroup (our third dimension) include the use of
grammatically cohesive elements, such as personal pronouns, depersonalisation, generalisation and
equation of incommensurable phenomena; the use of vague characterisations; and the substantive definition
of groups. An essential function of <we discourse> is the denial of personal responsibility and its
displacement on to the group as a whole, in the sense that what many people believe cannot be wrong. In a
similar vein, strategies of self-justification enable speakers to make normative evaluations of the outgroup
and to assign guilt or responsibility to members of that group or to the group as a whole. The aim of such a
discourse of self-justification, which is closely wound up with “we discourse”, is to allow the speaker to
present herself or himself as free of prejudice or even as a victim of so-called <reverse> prejudice.”/
“Prima consta in strategiile definirii de grup si a constructiei acestuia, strategii care stau la baza
constituirii <discursului nostru> (primul pas in realizarea discursului care face diferenta). Forma lingvistica
de realizare a acestuia si de constituire a comunitatii interne si a celei externe (cea dea treia dimensiune)
include folosirea unor elemente constitutive, cum ar fi: pronumele personale, depersonalizarea,
generalizarea, plasarea in ecuatie a unui fenomen altfel dificil de cuantificat, folosirea caracterizarilor vagi
si definirea substantivala a grupurilor. O functie esentiala a <discursului nostru> este cel de a nega
responsabilitatea si de a separara grupul in cauza ca intreg, in sensul in care multe persoane dau
credibilitate acestui fenomen.
Intr-o maniera similara, strategiile de autojustificare ii ajuta pe vorbitori/ comunicatori sa–si poata
crea propriile evaluari normative ale grupului/comunitatii externe si sa transfere vina sau responsabilitatea

1
Michel de Certeau, L’invention du quotidien. 1. Les arts de faire, Bourgois, col.10-18, Paris, 1980, pp. 75-
77 in Bernard Miege, Gandirea comunicationala, Cartea Romaneasca, 1998, p.76
catre membrii grupului sau catre grup ca intreg. Scopul acestui discurs de autojustificare este corelat cu
<discursul nostru> si permite vorbitorului sa se prezinte ca fiind deja eliberat de prejudicii sau chiar fiind
victima acestui asa-numit prejudiciu rasfrant asupra sa.” 2
Discursul <care face diferenta> se regaseste in toate articolele campaniei de presa britanice
referitoare la imigrantii romani de etnie rroma. Opinia publica britanica este prezentata prin intermediul
discursului jurnalistic ca fiind prejudiciata social si economic, agresata fizic si verbal de catre imigranti.
Acest discurs jurnalistic centrat pe eul social este o exprimare a prejudiciului adus la nivel de grup. Functia
sa este de redare a mesajului negativ, respectiv a opiniei, atitudinii si reactiei la nivel oficial si public.
Discursul care face diferenta se regaseste atat in exprimarea directa a mesajului jurnalistic cat si prin
deplasarea responsabilitatii de pe grupul social agresat pe cel care agreseaza. Tehnicile de argumentare se
bazeaza explicit pe redarea situatiilor, contextelor si evenimentelor.(Anton L, Crearea de imagine prin
tipuri de argumentatie in presa scrisa britanica)

III.3. Creative writing

1. Write a short essay on interpersonal communication.
2. Make a planning according to PR and advertising strategies for a product that you
consider interesting.
3. Lindsay Jenkins is a journalist and a specialist in European Union affairs. She has a
particular perspective on the British postmodern identity. In the article below she
makes a critical analysis of the administrative and political structure of the present
Britain. Read the article and express your own opinion on the present structure of
the UK.

“Disappearing Britain”

Lindsay Jenkins

The UK is Broken Up

John Major straddles the divide

Regions were conspicuous by their absence during Mrs. Thatcher's three governments. But her
Conservative governments were responsible for transferring more power from local government to
central government with rate capping, and the payment of business property rates direct to the
Treasury. Thus she deprived locally elected councillors of discretion to provide local services and on
which the voters could judge them. Tinkering with local taxation culminated in the hated Poll Tax
and riots on London's streets.
This was all done in the name of efficiency and fiscal probity but it did nothing to promote local
democracy, quite the reverse was true. The only thing that can be said is that it had nothing to do
with the EU. Unfortunately Mrs Thatcher's policies also gave a strong argument to those who later
promoted regional government, Britain had indeed become highly centralised.
Regions resurfaced under her successor, John Major.' In 1994 Major's Conservative government, in
which scepticism of the European project was driven to the wastelands of political thought,
established Government Offices for the Regions, outposts of central government civil servants to
deliver government policy.
On the one hand, Major curried popular favour by reverting to some pre-1974 boundaries; on the
other hand he advanced the EU cause by creating Government Offices in the regions, regions which
had not previously existed, and by extending unitary or sub-regional government, a pre-requisite of
full regional government.
In 1995, picking up where Harold Wilson had left off, the first Regional Assembly for Yorkshire and
Humberside was established combining the Regional Planning Office, the Yorkshire and
Humberside Regional Association and its Brussels' office in an area of 22 local authorities/

2 Ruth Wodack, (1996) “The Genesis of racist discourse in Austria since 1989”, in Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard&Malcolm Coulthard (coord.), Texts and
Practices, Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis, Routledge, London , p. 116
Perhaps paradoxically it was Major's government which reversed some of the most hated of Ted
Heath's changes. In particular in 1996 the eight huge Welsh counties with their 37 districts councils
were abolished and replaced by 22 unitary authorities. Simultaneously, in Scotland the nine regions,
the three island authorities and 53 district councils set up in 19753 were replaced by 32 unitary
authorities.
Today, it is clear that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right, that the
Heath regional divisions do not fit Brussels' current regulations.
In England the changes were more varied and the pattern of local government reverted to something
similar to the pre-1974 holocaust. The changes were phased to take effect on 1st April in each year
between 1995 and 1998.
In particular in 1996 four of Heath's hated counties - Avon, Cleveland, Humberside and the
combined Hereford and Worcester - were all abolished and converted into numbers of unitary
authorities plus Worcestershire County Council. The people of Rutland who had fought hard for
thirty years to have their county restored were satisfied by the compromise of a unitary authority
called Rutland.
In 1998, the Royal County of Berkshire ceased to exist, its Royal status abolished and now it only
exists for ceremonial functions. The Lord Lieutenant and the High Sheriff remain: the substance of
government has gone. Berkshire is in six unitary authorities.
Labour promotes regions
While in opposition, the Labour Party remained committed to regional government: it featured in
both the 1992 and 1997 Party manifestos. A 1995 consultation paper, A Choice for England,
proposed indirectly elected regional chambers and ultimately regional assemblies. London would
have an elected strategic authority combining both city and regional func¬tions.4
In marked contrast to its position today, the Labour Party had no problem admitting a Brussels'
connection with regional government. It stated, 'Labour wants to transfer power to the local level
and encourage Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the regions of England to strengthen their
links with the rest of Europe to allow them to influence the deci¬sion making process in Brussels and
benefit more from European regional and structural policy.'5
On gaining office, the Labour government under Prime Minister Tony Blair acted almost at once. In
July 1997 it pub¬lished White Papers proposing a Scottish Parliament and a National Assembly for
Wales, and rushed to a referendum in September.6 With the summer holidays intervening, there was
no time for a serious debate.
In Scotland, 74.3 per cent voted for a Scottish Parliament.
The Labour government's enthusiasm for this socialist revo¬lution is imprinted in its 'Policy
Documents' and 'Guidance' on local government published since 1997.7 There have been over 100 of
them, more than one new publication for every month Labour has been in power, with well-worn
socialist titles like 'New Deal'.8
It is time to worry about one-man one vote, when the government writes of 'removing the democratic
deficit'. The Labour government's intent to superimpose an elected regional assembly was an answer
to what John Prescott recog¬nised were undemocratic quangos and 'strategic partnerships' - over 60
quangos and 140 partnerships in each region of England alone. But he had no intention of abolishing
them.
Was the Welsh referendum biased?
In Wales the referendum result was extremely close: the Yes vote won by a margin of only 6,721
votes. 50.3 per cent voted Yes, and 49.7 per cent voted No.
Unlike Scotland where 45 per cent of the total electorate went to the polls, in Wales the total voting
failed to reach that 40 per cent threshold required in 1979 for the result to count. The Blair
government had such a large majority in the Commons that it could ignore the threshold issue, which
had been forced on Callaghan's weak government.
Only a quarter of the Welsh electorate voted for a National Assembly for Wales and in
Monmouthshire the figure was as low as 16 per cent. It was scarcely a resounding endorsement.
That is the moral case against the referendum. But it was worse than that.
The Committee on Standards in Public Life, set up by John Major with a wide ranging brief 'to act
as ... an ethical work¬shop called in to do running repairs'," reported in 1998
'We were disturbed, in particular, by the evidence we heard in Cardiff to the effect that the
referendum campaign in Wales . . . was very one sided, with the last minute No organisation seriously
under-funded and having to rely for financial support essentially on a single wealthy donor. The
outcome of the Welsh referendum was extremely close, and a fairer cam¬paign might well have
resulted in a different out¬come.'
There appears to have been some deliberate manipulation of the No campaign.
That old political trick of 'bouncing' voters into voting Yes was used: the Welsh referendum was
timed to be immediately after that for Scotland, where the Yes vote was expected to win easily, as
indeed it did.
Derek Gregory of UNISON, the public services trade union, funded a massive Yes campaign across
Wales and used UNISON facilities, without asking his members' permission.
There was no attempt to give equal broadcasting time to both campaigns. That was especially true of
the BBC (financed by the general public) and The Western Mail, the largest circulation newspaper in
Wales. Both favoured the Yes campaign.
Some suspected that No votes failed to reach the count. The No campaign was not present at the
opening of postal votes. In Flintshire 6,000 No votes were reportedly missing. At the Rhondda Cynon
Taff count, Labour supporters emptied ballot boxes behind a curtain, crudely sorted the ballot
papers and then produced them from behind the curtain to the counters.
The count in Carmarthen was held up because of the late arrival of ballot boxes stuffed to the brim,
in marked con¬trast to the other ballot boxes.
The No campaign presented fully audited accounts show¬ing that 90 percent of its approximate
£115,000 ($200,000) expenditure was by the banker, Sir Robert Hodge. The government's Yes
campaign, spending tax-payers' money, failed to produce any meaningful accounts. Sir Robert told
the Neill Committee that 'I am led to believe that the other side . . . possibly spent a seven figure sum.
That puts it in proportion."
Regional Development Agencies at home and abroad
With the quick success of the Scottish and Welsh referendums behind it, in 1998 the Labour
Government established nine Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), one in each English region,
including one in London based in St Katherine's Dock.14 All these RDAs have a close working
relationship with the civil servants in the neighbouring Government Offices (GOs).
The nine agencies are expensive to run costing over £1.8 billion a year ($3.2 bn); the most expensive
is the North West Development Agency with a government allocation of £400 million a year ($720 m).
They each employ between 100 and 350 staff.
At a cost of about £600 million a year ($1.08 bn) the Scottish Enterprise's role is to be a very
expensive 'gateway' for EU grants.15 With the Scottish Executive it runs a separate organisation,
Scottish Development International. That has 21 small offices round the world and larger ones in
Boston, Houston, San Jose, Shanghai and Singapore.
The Welsh Development Agency, sponsored by 'the Welsh Assembly government', has offices in
Australia, Ottawa, Toronto, Beijing, Shanghai, France, Holland, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy,
Japan, Korea, Taiwan, London, California, Illinois and New York. All these are additional to the
'embassies' the Welsh First Minister is setting up (see page 93).
The largest agency is Invest Northern Ireland with 710 staff and an undisclosed budget. The English
RDAs are public bodies responsible to the Department for Trade and Industry in London; the
government appoints
15 board members to each one.
The RDAs 'agreed' in 1999 to launch the eight 'English' regional assemblies, though as government
bodies they were unlikely to refuse. Assembly members are not elected, they too are appointed. Each
RDA consults with its regional assembly on the development of its Regional Economic Strategy,
described as the 'route map' for each region's development.
In practice the staffs of the GOs, the RDAs and the regional assemblies are closely intertwined.
Sharp-eyed watchers have spotted that some people have titles from each organisation and even
muddle them on correspondence, using more than one at the same time.
The RDAs co-ordinate land use, transport, economic devel-opment, agriculture, energy and waste.
Every RDA has a fully staffed office in Brussels and a close working relationship with the EU
Commission.
They promote the regions as though they were a country. For example, the East of England
Development Agency says it exports more to Europe than to the USA. Teams of business-men go
abroad touting the claims of each region for inward investment.
Two English RDAs have overseas offices. The North of England, in addition to its three offices in the
Northeast and another in Brussels, has offices in Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Los Angles, China, Korea,
Taiwan and Tokyo.
The South East of England Development Agency (SEEDA) has offices in Washington, San Diego and
Boston, Sidney, and two offices in Japan, in Yokohama and Osaka.
These must duplicate the work of the Department of Trade and Industry, which maintains a large
number of offices round the world to promote British trade and are therefore an added and
questionable heavy cost for
the taxpayer.
London demoted to a regional capital
As a result of the steady break up of the UK, the London of the last 1,000 years will be no more.
London will return to a regional capital, to the role it had before the twelfth century.
London now has a form of regional assembly, following the endorsement of less than a quarter of the
electorate in a 1998 referendum. Only 34 per cent of Londoners voted of whom just over 70 per cent
said Yes.
This was even fewer than voted for a National Assembly for Wales. While in Wales questions about
the legitimacy of its Assembly rumble on, Londoners have submitted without a murmur.
The Labour government has described the Greater London Assembly as a half way house to a
regional assembly and that more changes are likely. John Prescott told the House of Commons that
he had 'no doubt that reform will continue. As the Prime Minister reminds us constantly, change,
change, change is always on the agenda.
The government has not yet made the nature of those changes public.
Just like the other English regions, the mushrooming of organisations and the criss-cross
responsibilities between the various groups of people elected in London has made a farce of
transparency and accountability. On top of that the London Assembly constituencies are so vast that
there is only the most tenuous of constituency links. Nearly half of the Assembly members are not
linked to a constituency at all.
Will there always be an England?
England's final destruction into nine parts began with the 2002 White Paper Your Region, Your
Choice published in 2002.
Reading the White Paper is an exercise in Kreminology: it abounds in obfuscations, deceptions and
deceits. For example, the overused word partnership has no precise meaning. 'When I use a word ...
it means just what I chose it to mean -neither more nor less' as Humpty Dumpty remarked in Alice
Through The Looking Glass.
The document is unimpressive: verbiage - 'economic cohesion', 'joined up government', 'joined up
policy making' and 'joined up decisions' - is mixed with self-evident truths - 'plans have to be
forward looking' and 'real knowledge' - with contradictions, dubious logic, and repetition. A wielder
of a red pen could cut the paper in half and still have plenty of non-sense left over.
Your Region, Your Choice sheds a little light on the source of regional government. Through the
verbal murk, the origin of words gives some of the game away. It is clear that the British White
Paper is not wholly British. 'Spatial planning' is imported from France via Brussels and was
unknown to British planners. 'Observatories', another EU favourite term, is derived from the
French. The West Midlands region is to have a 'concordat' with other British government
organisations.
The government's repeated use of the word devolution is misleading. As already described,
devolution is nothing new; all British local government has been devolved.
Devolution disguises a three-stage process of revolution. First, some government offices are moved
from London to the new regions. Second, some powers are taken from county councils and districts
and given to regions, and third, the county councils are abolished or turned into unitary authorities,
like Rutland.
The government avoids admitting that county councils are to be abolished and omits to say that
regional government is required by treaty obligation to the EU.
The White Paper explicitly calls British local authorities sub-regions. In a convoluted way it states,
'in any region where an elected Assembly is established, there should be an associated move
to a wholly unitary local government structure.'
 Those who favour an English parliament to match and counter-balance those in Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland are answered elliptically. The White Paper notes that 84 per cent of the
population of the UK lives in England. In a leap of logic it continues that there cannot therefore be an
English parliament. Why not?
To satisfy logic, the White Paper should admit - but does not - that the population of England
dominates the UK so an English parliament would also be dominant.
To achieve that EU revolution, England has to be broken up so that it cannot dominate. That is the
White Paper's unwritten, but logical conclusion.
What the White Paper fails to say is that the ultimate 'devolution' will be from Brussels, because the
powers given to regions are those powers that have already passed to Brussels.
Direct links to the EU in Brussels can be discovered elsewhere for those who care to dig, but those
links are certainly not headlines. For example, the self-declared role of one directorate of the North
West Regional Assembly is 'To progress the European agenda through the provision of a coherent
and coordinated management infrastructure, the delivery and development of a range of EU funded
programmes, building on existing partners arrangements with candidate countries, and the
production of a regional European strategy.
The Assembly of European Regions (AER), with its logo of the EU ring of stars and declared aim of
'bringing together the regions of Europe and allowing them, together, to act in the construction of
Europe and European integration', truthfully reported that 'it is a matter of fact that today about
two thirds of all EU
legislation and programmes are applied at the regional, or local level.
New capital cities add cost
If and when formally elected, the regional assemblies will decide on their capital cities. Where might
they be? No doubt that will be strenuously debated. This list shows regional cities whose importance
is already rising:

Region Government Office RDA HQ Assembly HQ

SE Guildford Guildford Guildford
SW Bristol Exeter Taunton
NE Newcastle Newcastle Newcastle
NW Yorks/Humber Manchester Leeds Liverpool Wakefield Wigan Wakefield
W Midlands E Midlands East of England Birmingham Nottingham Cambridge Birmingham
Nottingham Bury St Edmunds Birmingham Melton Mowbray Bury St Edmunds
At present, most regional assemblies peregrinate around the region for their meetings like a
mediaeval court. If regional capitals are chosen will the assemblies then demand new 'parliament'
buildings like those for London, Scotland and Wales and at the cost of millions of pounds to the
taxpayer? The answer is almost certainly yes.
Overseas Territories caught in the EU net In 2001 the Overseas Territories qualified for EU grants.
It stretches credulity that this is an entirely philanthropic exercise on the part of the EU. Grants
given to constituent parts of all member countries have all had substantial strings attached, intended
to lead to one unified country.
To help them through the commando course of paperwork, the Foreign and Colonial Office in 2003
appointed a EU-UK co-ordinator and money is now flowing to Anguilla, Monsterrat, Pitcairn, St
Helena, the Turks and Caicos, and the Falklands. In 2004 they obtained financing worth overall €41
million. The Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands have outstanding bids.
Without a doubt, this EU funding will be at the price of some or all of the islands' freedom. They are
already under EU attack as tax havens. The 2005 FCO Departmental Report referred to EU
financing to promote integration and improve their partnership with the EU.
The story so far
Three elected regional governments have started work after referendums on their existence: London,
Scotland and Wales. The Northern Ireland Assembly is in cold storage awaiting warmer political
climes. It was suspended on 14th October 2002 when the peace process broke down, though elections
were held a year later.
The remaining eight English regional assemblies are operating unelected, without democratic
legitimacy. All these regional governments began work without considering the issue of elections and
before the relevant act of parliament was passed or even drafted.
Worse, the eight referendums still pending in England are not to decide if there should be regional
assemblies, but only if they should be elected assemblies. If the vote is No, the Assemblies will
continue to operate unelected, just like the North East of England.
All the parliaments and assemblies are closely intertwined with developments agencies at home and
abroad and government offices full of civil servants.

III.4. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

Circle the correct answer below

1. The most widely read newspaper in the UK is
a. Daily Mirror
b. Sun
c. The Observer

2.“Freebies” means:
a. a.daily newspapers
b. b.free newspapers
c. tabloids

3.Tabloids are related to:

a. a.entertainment
b. b.analysis
c. c.gossip

4. BBC is:
a. a.an American network
b. b.a British national Corporation
c. c.a private channel

5. Research in PR is:
1. a.preventing crises
2. b.gathering information
3. measure success

6. When you define audiences and segment publics you:

1. a.test messages
2. search for characteristics
3. monitor the competition

7. A questionnaire in PR research contains:

1. analysis
2. simple questions
3. complicated words

8.Scientific sampling
1. is a research technique
2. is not used in PR research
3. is used by physicians

9. Online networks
a. are not frequently used in PR research
b. are very much used in PR research
c. have many services

10.“Qualitative” research is using

a. focus groups
b. mail questionnaire
c. random sampling

11. Britain’s first newspapers appeared over

a. 300 years ago
 b. 500 years ago
c. 1500 years ago

12. “Freebies” means:

a. daily newspapers
b. free newspapers
i. tabloids

13. Quality newspapers are related to:

a. social issues
b. analysis
c. gossip

14. CNN is about:

a. cable network news
b. sports
c. media coverage

15. When you formulate a strategy in PR, you:

a. define the target public
b. think of a campaign
c. measure success

16. The personal interview

a. is the most expensive form of research
b. is the cheapest form of research
c. is the most profitable form of research

17. Research
a. is the basic groundwork of any PR program
b. is the most knowledgeable approach
c. is the most important part in PR

18. Focus groups are defined as:

a. a certain category of the target public
b. groups of 8 to 12 people with common characteristics
c. groups that focus on certain common interests

19. Random sampling is

a. a scientific research
b. a probability sampling
c. a research based on sampling

20. Online networks

a. are never used in PR research
b. are frequently used in PR research
c. are sometimes used in PR research

21. Ownership of the press affects:

a. public opinion
b. politics
c. the economical standards

22. “Freebies” means:

a. daily newspapers
b. free newspapers
c. tabloids
23. Tabloids are related to:
a. entertainment
b. analysis
c. gossip
24. Broadsheets are about:
a. music
b. news coverage
c. political agenda

25.The Sun is:

a. a tabloid
b. a quality newspaper
c. a scientific journal

26. Test messages are used in PR in order to:

a. understand the research objectives
b. reach the target audience
c. keep in touch with the audience

27. Content analysis is:

a. a common approach
b. a research method
c. a basic method of research

28. Political correctness is

a. a courtesy bias
b. a correct attitude
c. a common approach

29. Surveys and polls are:

a. letters
b. sets of questions with a target public
c. political questions

Answer the following questions:

1. How can the Internet and World Wide Web be used as research tools?

2. Name at least five ways to use research in public relations.

3. What are the pros and cons of piggyback survey?

4. Would you prefer library methods instead of online resources? If yes/ no, why?

5. What is the difference between probability (random) and nonprobability samples?

RECOMMENDED SITES
1. A bookshop always updated with excellent materials to improve your level of English, no matter you are
at the intermediate or advanced level
www.oxford.ro
2. Would you like to borrow dictionaries, grammar books or English courses in Communication,
Journalism or Law?
www.britishcouncil.ro
3. You probably want to improve your pronunciation in English, your grammar or vocabulary.
www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish
4. Other bookshops:
www.fedu.ro
www.macmillan.ro
5. You want to know more about tests of English as a foreign language
www.toefl.org
6. You need online dictionaries
www.limbi-straine.ro

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