1. Activity 03: Text Difficulty
The man who buried
Marx and Freud
U NTIL his death on September 17th, Sir Karl Popper was the best-known and most widely read
of living philosophers. There were no challengers. Why? Because he had a simple idea that
anybody can understand. It is that man makes progress by making mistakes.
Popper applied this thesis to science and to politics. In science, he argued that the mark of a good
theory was that it should be easily falsifiable - that is, open to correction. He attacked Freud for
propounding theories so all-encompassing that they could not be refuted. Freudianism, argue
Popper, could explain away any apparent criticism, and therefore did not count as genuinely
scientific.
In politics, Popper said the mark of a good system of government was that it too, should be open to
criticism. No system could get everything right, so no system should have too much power. “The
Open Society and Its Enemies” is a brilliant polemic against the political utopianism of Plato, Hegel
and Marx. It remains the best intellectual defence of liberal democracy against know-it-all to-
talitarianism. Popper, an assimilated Viennese Jew born in 1902, wrote it between 1938 and 1943
while in New Zealand. It was, he said, his war effort.
In a preface to the latest edition of Popper’s autobiography, Helmut Kohl rightly described him as
“among the most significant champions of the open society”. Mr. Kohl also wrote of Popper’s “great
personal modesty”. In the flesh, perhaps, but not in the writings. One chapter of his autobiography
is called “who killed Logical Positivism?”. The answer is unashamedly “Me”.
In other books he repeatedly claimed to have solved one of the great philosophical puzzles, David
Hume’s “problem of induction”. He didn’t. The refutation of Popper on this point is now a standard
undergraduate exercise in philosophy. According to his own theories, Popper should have
welcomed this fact, but he could not bring himself to do so. The irony is that, here, Popper could
nor admit he was wrong.
Popper’s range was much wider than his “fallibilist” fame suggests. There are writings on the brain,
on quantum mechanics, on the theory of probability and many other topics that have not received
nearly so much attention as his well-known work on politics and scientific method. Popper ought to
have hoped that these other writings would be refuted that others could learn from his mistakes; but
he probably did not. He is likely to be remembered most for “The Open Society” - for the
unPopperian reason that it was right.
(423 words)
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2. Activity 03: Text Difficulty
HEAD TO HEAD
What’s the best way to control population growth in Vietnam?
Adrie van Gelderen is Managing Director of Affiliate Ltd (HK) and Professor Dang Thu is director of the Centre for
Population, national Centre for Social and Human Sciences.
Adrie van Gelderen - In Vietnam, as well as in many
other developing countries, the uncontrolled growth of
the population is a problem that requires immediate and
lasting solutions. It has been estimated that Vietnam Dang Thu - In 1934 in Hanoi, the child mortality
will have 168 million people by 2050 at present growth rate was 50% and life expectancy was about 20
rates. years. In this kind of environment, if a married
couple did not have seven to 10 children the
Campaigns by the government and international population simply couldn’t keep its numbers up.
organizations may have some effect in urban This is why people had big families.
areas, but in the countryside and mountainous
regions the number of young children in the Over the past 30 to 40 years, the mortality rate
villages is staggering. Wherever one goes7öne is has been falling rapidly and life expectancy is now
surrounded by hordes of toddlers. 66 years. But the birth rate is still high.
Many people in the countryside view birth control The average educational level of Vietnamese is
and modem methods of contraception as culturally 4.6 years of schooling, a figure which puts
unacceptable. Vietnam above 90 countries in the world. But as
there is a disparity between the level of learning
However, a reason for the high birth rate and development from one area to another, the
(compensation for high child mortality) is birth rate is still high in backward areas.
disappearing with the increase of the quality of
health care and personal hygiene. More children Decades ago, when the population was still
are born healthy but many still feel the need to relatively small and land was plentiful, people
reproduce at traditional levels. used to think that the bigger the family, the richer it
was. These days this has been more or less
Improvements in socioeconomic circumstances reversed with jobs scarce and oversupply of labor.
have a certain influence on fertility statistics and Parents see that the economy of the family is
there are family planning experts who argue that affected as soon as the first child is born and this
economic improvement is the best contraceptive. is intensified with each successive child.
In my opinion the surest way to a solution for But, although the feudal idea of favouring boys
population control is an intensive and integrated over girls has more or less died out, there are still
education programme on health care and family some married couples which, after having two
planning aimed at the age girls, still want a boy.
group that is not yet sexually % OF PEOPLE LIVING IN CITIES
active. And there are still people in
Singapore 100% rural areas who cling to the
New views concerning family Hong Kong 95% three to five-child family for-
structure and size must be Korea 76%
implanted in the generation that Taiwan 75% mula.
has not yet started creating a Philippines 45% With the electrification of rural
Malaysia 44% areas and as the proportion of
family.
Pakistan 33% the population working in
The major difficulty is the Indonesia 31%
agriculture falls as services and
question of how far one can or China 27%
should go “brainwashing” India 26% industry grow, the television
Thailand 24% and radio will give backward
children on the subject, break-
Vietnam 20% areas access to more
ing down centuries-old tradi- Average 12 countries 29% information. This in turn will
tions and values. stem backward habits and cus-
World 42%
Over the last 40 years most toms. People will be better off,
money has been spent on Source: Deutsche Bank Research will concentrate on wealth
providing contraception and creation and so have a smaller
information through family planning, but I think that family.
such methods do not bring about a change in Once the target of two children per family has
people’s thinking and benefits stop when these been achieved, with such a large part of the
activities finish. population quite young, the population will keep
growing for some 50-60 years before it stops.
(721 words) The problem will take a generation to work itself
out.
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3. Activity 03: Text Difficulty
Hue Suite
Ursula Nixon
The Perfume River:
Light makes silk the dark water
Flowing like our lives
***
Nine dynastic urns
Adorn the dusty gardens
Of a long-dead prince.
***
Petals of the hand:
The light caress of fingers
Smoothing rich brocade.
***
Tu Duc’s tomb awaits
Ghosts and the living to cross
Deserted courtyards
***
Autumn’s yellow leaves
Scatter across the flagstones,
Emptying the year.
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4. Activity 03: Text Difficulty
Opera is expensive: that much is inevitable But expensive things are not inevitably the
province of the rich unless we abdicate society’s power of choice. We can choose to make
opera, and other expensive forms of culture, accessible to those who cannot individually
pay for it. The question is: why should we? Nobody denies the imperatives of food, shelter,
defense, health and education. But even in a prehistoric cave, mankind sketched out a hand
not just to eat, drink or fight, but also to draw. The impulse towards culture, the desire to
express and explore the world through imagination and representation is fundamental in
Europe, this desire has found fulfillment in the masterpieces of our music, art, literature and
theatre. These masterpieces are the touchstones for all our efforts; they are the touchstones
for the possibilities to which human thought and imagination may aspire; they carry the
most profound messages that can be sent from one human to another.
What would we think of a society which did not attempt to teach its children about these
achievements? And what would those children think if, having learnt that Mozart was one
of the greatest creative minds who had ever lived, they discovered that his works were
denied to all but those who passed the test of being rich?
Nobody should denigrate the value of the patronage of the rich. It is one of the great
traditions of our culture, and the desire and the ability to beautify your life and your
surroundings at your own expense is a noble one. But in method, taste and consumption, it
is individual and private, and thus at odds with the fundamental nature of music, theatre,
and opera, which is public and communal.
Theatre sprang out of a need to dramatize the unknowable. We learn from a handful of
human beings, most born without exceptional material privileges, that theatre can aspire to
a genuinely profound and mystical experience. When the people of a city gather together in
the darkness and immerse themselves collectively in the works of Mozart and Verdi, they
are not only imbibing these great spirits for themselves but in concert with their unknown
neighbours on either side. This is a profound social activity, which is by no means to be
compared with sitting in isolation listening to a reproduction. The great spiritual force of
the highest forms of theatre, music and opera stems from its ability to inspire an audience to
feelings which are generously and publicly expressed, not harboured secretly and privately.
The civilised society will make music, theatre and opera the province of all its people. An
uncivilized society reserves such achievements for a privileged few. The rest of society may
learn about the existence of these achievements but denied access to them, they will tend to
hate the ideals and aspirations they embody, and ultimately, hate society itself. It is simply a
question of choice.
(486 words)
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5. Activity 03: Text Difficulty
ITALIAN CHICKEN
Prep. and Cook Time: 30 mins.
Ingredients:
• 4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 kg jar spaghetti sauce of choice
• 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
• Parmesan cheese
• Salt, pepper, garlic
• Fettuccine noodles
Directions:
Grease large casserole dish. Season chicken breasts with salt,
pepper and garlic. Place flat in casserole dish. Bake for 20 minutes
turning once. Pour spaghetti sauce over chicken and sprinkle
generously with mozzarella cheese. Bake until bubbly and cheese
has melted. Prepare noodles according to directions and serve
chicken and sauce over noodles. Top with grated parmesan cheese.
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