Second reading summary sample

GLOBAL POPULATION GROWTH

Presentation by Hans Rosling in Cannes

Introduction

Hans Rosling presented how world population have been changing since 1960. He also made a prediction on how the progress will continue, if no action is taken to stop the growth in the poorest developing countries. He used colourful boxes to describe the population sizes and statistical data on progress. Each box represented one billion people.

Evolution

In 1960 there were two boxes for the developing world and one box for the industrialised western world. There was a big gap in levels of wealth between the west and the rest. While people’s goal in the western world was to get their own cars, people in developing countries dreamed of new sandals.

Since 1960 the gap between these two categories of countries has been reduced, and world population has more than doubled. If the growth continues at its current trend, the population will reach 9 billion by 2050.

Solution

According to Rosling the only way to stop this growth is by getting the poorest people out of poverty, giving them education and increasing their child survival rate. This will dramatically affect the number of children per woman.

The most developed poor countries have gotten closer to the western world when it comes to birth rate. However, we still have the 2 billion poor people, whose birth rate is almost six children per woman. If four of those children survive to adulthood, the population in the poorest countries will double from 2 to 4 billion in one generation.

Statistically, it is shown that birth rate is lower in wealthiest and healthiest countries where child survival rate is near 100%.  As such, Rosling describes child survival as the new green. Only by investing in improving the living conditions of the  poorest countries, the current trend can be stopped, and the rate of global population growth can be kept at a sustainable level.

Linking words

The first and second parts of the documents on linking words are hereby available.  You can also find the key for the exercises here.  As you do the exercises, please remember the following three types of linking words we have identified:

• Linking words that connect two parts of the same sentence as in the following example: We only have one week off for Easter, so we will be staying in Brussels.
• Linking words that connect two separate sentences as in the following four examples, which are different ways of saying the same thing:

1. We only have one week off for Easter.  Therefore, we will be staying in Brussels.
2. We only have one week off for Easter; therefore, we will be staying in Brussels.
3. We only have one week off for Easter.  We will, therefore, be staying in Brussels.
4. We only have one week off for Easter; we will, therefore, be staying in Brussels.

• Linking words that are covered under both the first and second types as in the four following examples:

1. Besides giving his friend a lift after work, he helped her with her grocery shopping.
2. He helped his friend with her grocery shopping, besides giving her a lift after work.
3. I am afraid I am not allowed to help you with that question.  Besides, I do not know the answer myself.
4. I am afraid I am not allowed to help you with that question; besides, I do not know the answer myself.

Note that the meaning of the word 'besides'  in the first two examples is different from its meaning in the last two examples.

In all these examples, please pay special attention to the punctuation.

Commonly confused words

Here is the list of the commonly confused words.

Dangling clauses and phrases

Here you can find the document on dangling clauses and phrases.

Preparation for 24th of June

Here is the link for a presentation  by Hans Rosling on population growth.  Please watch it once while taking notes, and bring your notes to a summary report of one 1.5-spaced page.  You can send me the summaries before our next session on 24th of June.

Relative, -ed and -ing clauses

Here you can find some exercises on relative, -ed and -ing clauses along with the key.

Sample synthesis summary

The U-bend of life
Why, beyond middle age, people get happier as they get older

According to many recent social, medical and economic studies, people should not dread ageing, as life is not a long slow decline but rather a U-bend.

After a cheerful adulthood and a depressing mid-life crisis, luckily things do not go downhill further. Although old age means losing treasures such as vitality, mental sharpness and looks, what is surprising is that the elderly finally find what they spend their lives pursuing, namely happiness.

Unconvinced by the conventional direct relationship between money and well-being, some economists have established a new branch of economics based on the new concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which policy makers have been increasingly taking into account.

Statisticians have been trying to find the answer to the perennial question of what makes people happy. Surveys have been conducted to measure two sides of this issue, i.e., global well-being and hedonic or emotional well-being. Moreover, the following four main factors have emerged from the collected data: gender, personality, external circumstances and age.

The U-bend was noticed in the early 1990s, and if turned upside down, it becomes an arc, peaking at the age of 46, when people are the most depressed.

Researchers believe that the U-bend must be the result of internal changes, not external circumstances. Older people have fewer rows and come up with better solutions to conflicts; they are better at controlling their emotions and at accepting misfortunes; they are also less prone to anger, and come to accept their strengths and weaknesses.

The U-bend also shows us that old people are healthier, as happier people are less likely to catch viruses and recover from illnesses more quickly. Thus, the cheerfulness of the old helps counteract their crumbliness and loss of productivity due to declining cognitive skills—a point worth remembering as the world is trying to work out how to deal with an ageing workforce.

Money really can buy you happiness with some qualifications
 
It is widely believed that money cannot buy happiness, and that growth-oriented free-market economies have got it wrong. Many recent studies have shown only a loose correlation between money and happiness when measured over time or across countries. The “Easterlin paradox” suggests that well-being depends not on absolute, but on relative income. For, people feel miserable not because they are poor, but because they are at the bottom of the particular pile in which they find themselves.

As data on the effect of income on well-being is now available almost everywhere in the world, the huge variation in life satisfaction across countries is becoming increasingly evident. Although developed countries score up to eight and developing countries as low as three out of ten, cultural factors are also at work, such as the ones prevailing over the surprisingly gloomy Portuguese in the Western World. Another example is the case of Hong Kong and Denmark, which have similar incomes per person, but respectively score 5.5 and eight on the ten-point scale. Along the same lines, the saddest place in the world relative to its income per person is Bulgaria.