LANGUAGE  FUNCTIONS

   

   

   

   Match the functional heading with the textual extracts.

   

   

   comparing / contrasting

   cause / effect

   classifying

   describing a process

   exemplifying

   defining

   

   

   1.

   

   

   A language is a signalling system which operates with symbolic vocal sounds, and which is used
   by a group of people for the purposes of communication.

   Let us look at the definition in more detail because it is language, more than anything else,
   that distinguishes man from the rest of the animal world.

   Other animals, it is true, communicate with one another by means of cries: for example, many
   birds utter warning calls at the approach of danger; apes utter different cries, such as
   expressions of anger, fear and pleasure. But these various means of communication differ in
   important ways from human language. For instance, animals’ cries are not articulate. This
   means, basically, that they lack structure. They lack, for example, the kind of structure
   given by the contrast between vowels and consonants. They also lack the kind of structure that
   enables us to divide a human utterance into words.

   We can change an utterance by replacing one word in it by another: a good illustration of this
   is a soldier who can say, e.g., ‘tanks approaching from the north’, or he can change one word
   and say ‘aircraft approaching from the north’, or ‘tanks approaching from the west’; but a
   bird has a single alarm cry, which means ‘danger!’

   

   

   2.

   

    

    Inorganic chemistry

   

   A branch of chemistry concerned with the study of those aspects which do not fall within the
   study of organic chemistry. It is the study of elements and their compounds. This includes the
   chemistry of some compounds of the element carbon, such as its oxides, metal carbonates and
   hydrogencarbonates, but excludes all organic compounds such as alcohols, esters and
   hydrocarbons.

   

   

   

   

   3.

   

   

   

   By the year 2000, more women will be working than men. Two out of three women now work, 60%
   full time. There are about 127,000 males aged 18 – 24 who have been unemployed for a year or
   more. Only 38,000 women fall in the same category. 45% of women graduates are in work within
   six months of leaving university, as opposed to 42.3% of men. After a year 12% of male
   graduates are unemployed, but only 8% of women. The number of women entering management
   schools was around 10% a decade age. Now it is 20-30% and rising. Researchers predict that
   within a generation teaching will be an all female profession. At school boys are lagging
   behind girls in all subjects, even in the sciences, the traditional “male” preserve. In 1993
   45.8% of girls achieved 5 top grade GCSEs (grades A, B or C) compared with only 36.8% of boys.
   Girls are twice as likely to get an A in “A” level English. Boys outnumber girls two to one in
   Britain’s schools for children with learning difficulties. In special units for behavioural
   problems there are six boys for every girl. 80% of girls plan to go to college, compared with
   only 60% of boys. Teenage boys are much less optimistic about the future than girls according
   to one recent study. Young men represent one-eighth of the population but commit one third of
   all crimes. The suicide rate among young men has risen by 70% in the last decade. Young men
   (15 – 24) have a suicide rate of 16 per 100,000: the rate for girls is five.

   

   

   

   

   4.

   

   

   

   For the last hundred years the climate has been growing much warmer. This has had a number of
   different effects. Since the beginning of the 20^th Century, glaciers have been melting very
   rapidly. For example, the Muir Glacier in Alaska has retreated 2 miles in 10 years. Secondly,
   rising temperatures have been causing the snowline to retreat on mountains all over the world.
   In Peru, for example, it has risen as much as 2700 feet in 60 years.

   As a result of this, vegetation has also been changing. In Canada, the agricultural cropline
   has shifted 50 to 100 miles northward. In the same way cool-climate trees like birches and
   spruce have been dying over large areas of Eastern Canada. In Sweden the treeline has moved up
   the mountains by as much as 65 feet since 1930.

   The distribution of wildlife has also been affected, many European animals moving northwards
   into Scandinavia. Since 1918, 25 new species of bird have been seen in Greenland, and in the
   United States birds have moved their nests to the north.

   Finally, the sea has been rising at a rapidly increasing rate, largely due, as was mentioned
   above, to the melting of glaciers. In the last 18 years it has risen by about 6 inches, which
   is about four times the average rate of rise over the last 9000 years.

   

   

   

   

   

   5.

   

   

   

   All plants and animals need carbon for growth. Carbon is present in the atmosphere in the form
   of carbon dioxide gas. But it is present only in small amounts. This means it has to be used
   again and again. Animals and plants continually take in and give out carbon during
   respiration. They also take it in when they feed, and give it out when they die. This
   continual process is called the carbon cycle.

   Plants take in carbon from the air during photosynthesis. In this process, plants use energy
   from the sun together with carbon dioxide from the air. They then make sugars, and other
   carbohydrates. The carbohydrates are needed for the growth of roots, stems and leaves.

   The leaves may subsequently be eaten by animals, which digest the carbohydrates. The carbon is
   then used for building muscles and bones. Some of the carbon, however, is returned to the
   atmosphere after respiration, when carbon dioxide is released from the body.

   

   

   

   6.

   

   

   

   The vast majority of children in Britain (87%) attended state (local authority) schools which
   provide compulsory education from the age of 5 to 16 years. These schools can be classified
   according to the age range of the pupils and the type of education provided. Basically, there
   are two types of school: primary and secondary, although in some areas there are also middle
   schools. Primary schools cater for children aged 5 – 11, and secondary schools for ages 11-16
   (and in some areas up to 18 years). Primary schools can be sub-divided into infant schools
   (for ages 5 – 7) and junior schools (for ages 7 – 11).

   Secondary schools are normally of one type for all abilities, viz. comprehensive schools. More
   than 90% of children in state schools attend this kind of school. In some areas middle schools
   exist as an extra level after primary school for children aged 8 or 9 to 12 or 13. Pupils then
   transfer to senior comprehensive schools. In a small number of areas, pupils may be grouped
   according to their ability and selected by means of an examination at the age of 11. In these
   areas, grammar schools cater for those with academic ability and secondary modern schools for
   those with less academic ability.

   When pupils reach the age of 16 there may be three choices open to them. Firstly, they may
   leave school. Secondly, they may stay on at school for two more years if it has a Sixth Form.
   Thirdly, they may transfer to a Sixth Form College or a Tertiary College.