Foundation Course in English (FEG-01/BEGF-101) Assignment

Answer all the questions, Max. Marks: 100

1 Read the following passage and answer the questions.

If asked, ‘What are health decisions?’, most of us would answer in terms of hospitals, doctors and pills. Yet we are all making a whole range of decisions about our health which go beyond this limited area; for example, whether or not to smoke, exercise, wear a seat belt, drive a motorbike, drink alcohol regularly. The way we reach decisions and form attitudes about our health is only just beginning to be understood.

The main paradox is why people consistently do things that are known to be very hazardous. Two good examples of this are smoking and not wearing seat belts: addiction helps keep smokers smoking, and whether to wear a seat belt is only partly affected by safety considerations. Taken together, both these examples underline elements of how people reach decisions about their health. Understanding this process is crucial. We can then more effectively change public attitudes to hazardous, voluntary activities like smoking. 

Smokers run double the risk of contracting heart disease, several times lung cancer, as compared to non-smokers. Despite extensive press campaigns (especially in the past 20 years), which have regularly told smokers and car drivers the grave risks they are running, the number of smokers and seat belt wearers has remained much the same. Although the numbers of deaths from road accidents and smoking are well-publicized, they have aroused little public interest.

If we give smokers the real figures, will it alter their views on the dangers of smoking? Unfortunately not. Many of the ‘real figures’ are in the form of probabilistic estimates, and evidence shows that people are very bad at processing and understanding this kind of information.

The kind of information that tends to be relied on both by the smoker and seat belt non-wearer is anecdotal, based on personal experiences. All smokers seem to have an Uncle or an Auntie who has been smoking cigarettes since they were twelve, lived to 90, and died because they fell down the stairs. And if they don’t have such an aunt or uncle, they are certain to have heard of someone who has. Similarly, many motorists seem to have heard of people who would have been killed if they had been wearing seat belts.

Reliance on this kind of evidence and not being able to cope with ‘probabilistic’ data form the two main foundation stones of people’s assessment of risk. A third is a reliance on press-publicized danger and causes of death. American psychologists have shown that people overestimate the frequency (and therefore the danger) of the dramatic causes of death (like airplane crashes) and underestimate the undramatic, unpublicized killers (like smoking) which actually take a greater toll of life.

4 What is needed is some way of changing people’s evaluations and attitudes to the risks of certain activities like smoking. What can be done? The ‘rational’ approach to giving people the ‘facts and figures’ seems ineffective. But evidence shows that when people are frightened, they are more likely to change their estimates of the dangers involved in smoking or not wearing seat belts. Press and television can do this very cost-effectively. Programs like Dying for a Fag (a Thames TV program in April 1975) vividly showed the health hazards of smoking and may have increased the chances of people stopping smoking permanently.

However, the shock effects of programs like this can be too severe, resulting in little or no change in attitudes or behavior. Or the effects may be swamped by the more pervasive effect of personal contact and other TV programs which show people smoking.

So a mass-media approach may work. But it needs to be carefully controlled. Overall, the new awareness of the problem of health decisions and behavior is at least a more hopeful sign for the future.

(from ‘Why do we still dice with death? by Robert Hallett in New Society)

1a The subject under discussion in this article is (choose the correct answer)

1 i) Why people persist in running health risks.

ii) Why people fail to make health decisions.

iii) How people estimate the dangers of smoking.

iv) How to use mass media for health education.

1b What are the two things which are dangerous, but people continue to do them? 2

1c Name the three major risks that smokers face compared to nonsmokers. 3

1d Why do you think giving ‘real figures’ to smokers, does not prevent them from smoking? 2

1e What is the most effective way of preventing people from things that harm them? Discuss. 3

1f A reason given for using the mass media to public health risks is _________ (complete the sentence) 2

1g The most hopeful aspect of this article is the fact that: (choose one) 1

i) The media are having an increasing effect on health education.

ii) Attention is being paid to how people assess health risks.

iii) People are becoming more concerned about their own health.

iv) Precise figures are now available to underline health risks.

1h Give a title to the passage.

1 2 Match the words in Column A with their meanings in Column B. 10

Column A                         Column B

 i) Paradox                        a) change

ii) Hazardous                    b) being infected

iii) Crucial                         c) a situation which is strange because both aspects of it cannot be true.

 iv) Voluntary                     d) very important

v) Contracting                   e) dangerous

vi) Extensive                   f) serious

vii) Grave                        g) doing something willfully and with full consciousness. 

viii) Alter                         h) something which happens suddenly and is noticeable and surprising.

ix) Probabilistic i) something which is likely to be true or correct.

x) Dramatic                    j) containing many details or ideas on a particular subject.

3 Complete the sentences given below: If-Conditional- What would happen if ……………………..5 

 i. If the trees are felled there would be soil erosion.

ii. If the soil is eroded …………………………….

iii. If the soil lacks nutrients ………………………

iv. If nothing grows on the land …………………..

v. If people have nothing to eat ………………….

vi. If the government doesn’t do anything for the starving people………………….

4 Complete the following sentences with appropriate main clauses. 5

i. …………… just as I was ringing the bell.

ii. …………… every time I meet them.

iii. …………… as long as you want it.

iv. …………… by the time mother came home

v. ……………. the moment he went on the stage.

5 Fill in the blanks with suitable prepositions. 10

i) Wildlife is disappearing so fast ………….. earth that soon the only ‘wild’ animals left maybe those found ………….zoos.

ii) So, as the forests…………… earth gets smaller and smaller, zoos are becoming more important.

iii) The first recorded zoological gardens were set up………….. China ………... Wen Wang.

iv) The first modern zoo to study animals, the Jordin des Planets………… Paris was set up ……….. the end ………. the 18th century.

v) The zoo………. my city is very popular …………children.

6 Select the correct form of the verbs given in brackets in each of the following sentences: 10

i. He (went/has gone) to Bombay yesterday.

ii. I (am/have been) waiting for two hours.

iii. They will serve you lunch if you (attend/will attend) the function.

iv. They had left when he (arrived/had arrived).

v. The bus (left/has left) an hour ago.

vi. Had I known you were coming I (would have waited/would wait) for you.

vii. I (did not write/have not written) the essay yet.

viii. She (lived/has lived) in Jaipur since 1947.

ix. I (am not hearing/have not heard) from her for a year.

x. A new TV channel (has been started/was started) last Monday.

 7 Fill up the gaps with a suitable word from the choices in the brackets: 5

i The management did not ………………... the explanation given by the employee. (except/accept)

ii She was the youngest ………………...the seven new recruits. (between/among)

iii The lawyer tried to ………………...her that she had a strong case. (ensure/assure/insure)

iv She was nervous as many ………………...academicians were coming to her paper reading.(eminent/imminent)

v He found everything ………………...the file he was looking for. (accept/except)

8 Write a dialogue of about 200 words on any one of the following: 20

i. You want to initiate a campaign with your friend on cleaning your locality. Discuss with her/him how you both will proceed.

ii You want to go on a trek to the mountains. Discuss with your friend who is accompanying you about the arrangements, things to take along, places to go to and so on.

9 Write a composition in about 200 words on any one of the following: 20

i. Good health is the most important thing in life.

ii. Describe your closest friend and how this friendship came about.

iii. Problems in life actually challenge to overcome in order to become better human beings.

iv. A creative hobby you are interested in.