English For Today chapter 5: Problems Around Us

Unit Five

Problems Around Us

Learning outcomes

After we have studied the unit, we will be able to

• ask and tell about problems
• seek and give suggestions
• listen for specific information
• narrate something in writing
• read charts and do a project work.

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Lesson 1: The Ferry Boat

A. Look at the picture and answer these questions.

Figure

Description: A crowded wooden country boat packed with passengers standing and sitting is crossing a river, steered with long bamboo poles.

1. Where can you find this kind of boat?
2. Why does the boatman carry passengers across a river?
3. Why do people use country boats?

B. Read the text and answer the following questions.

“Is there anybody here who has ever crossed a river by a country boat?”

“I have, teacher,” said Jamil. “And I clearly remember what happened in that journey.”

“Would you please tell us what happened?” the teacher asked.

"Okay, teacher. It happened when I was in class 6. On a weekly bazar day, people were coming back with their shopping bags and baskets in hands, on shoulders and heads. They had to cross the river. It was not a big river. There was a ferry boat plying on the river. The boat could cross it in 8-10 minutes. It was just after sunset. The weather was getting bad. The wind started blowing from the north-west. Black clouds were moving fast in the sky.

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Everybody was trying to get into the boat. ‘No more, no more, please wait,’ shouted the boatman. But nobody listened to him.”

“What happened then, Jamil?” asked Rumi.

“With too many people on board, the boat sank in the middle of the river,” replied Jamil.

"Oh no! What happened then?" asked the teacher. "There were no casualties by the grace of the Almighty. All the passengers swam to the other side. But some of them lost the stuff they were carrying such as oil, salt and milk," said Jamil.

"Were you on the boat?" asked the teacher. "No, teacher. Seeing the boat overcrowded, I waited for the next boat," replied Jamil. "You did the right thing, Jamil."

Questions

Tick the best answer.

1. A ferry boat was plying on the river. Here ‘plying’ means a. playing with other boats. b. sinking in the river. c. travelling along a route. d. waiting for passengers.

2. Why was everybody trying to get into the boat? Because a. it was a weekly bazar day. b. after sunset no ferry would ply on the river. c. everybody had shopping bags with them. d. it was going to be a dark and stormy evening.

3. The boatman requested the people to wait, because a. his boat was very small. b. the boat had already too many people. c. there were other boats they could take. d. he would not ferry people with bags and baskets.

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4. “With too many people on board , the boat sank …” Here the phrase ‘on board’ means a. on the boat. b. on the wooden board. c. outside the boat. d. on the notice board.

5. There were no casualties. The statement tells us that a. nobody died. b. nobody was rescued. c. nobody accepted their fate. d. nobody lost anything.

6. The boat was overcrowded. Here ‘overcrowded’ means a. people were quarrelling on the boat. b. the boat was unable to carry any more people. c. the boatman did not like a crowd. d. people were sitting on the boat’s bamboo hood.

C. Discuss in groups and write answers to these questions.

1. Why did some people have little or no patience when the ferry boat was in danger of sinking?
2. 'No more, No more, please wait' who said this? Explain in 2/3 sentences.
3. Answer the questions below: a. If we have too many passengers at a bus or train station, what may happen? b. If we have too many people in a village / town / city, what will happen?

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Lesson 2: Are We Too Many?

A. Read the text and do the following project work.

The next day when the teacher came to the class and was about to start the lesson, Shanti Barua stood up and said, “Teacher, can I ask you a question, please?”

“Go ahead, Shanti,” said the teacher.

"In our last class, we heard Jamil's story of how too many people made the ferry boat sink. I have also seen crowds of people at bus stand, railway station, launch and steamer ghats. It is not uncommon to see people travelling on top of a bus or train and meeting with tragic accidents. My question is: Are there really too many people in our country?"

“Thank you, Shanti. Please sit down.”

The teacher then looked round the class and asked, “How many of you have the same question in mind?”

Almost all the hands went up.

"Okay," the teacher continued. "Finding the right answer to this question is very important for us—for our national development. So,we will look at this issue with some facts so that we can find out if we are really too many or not."

Project work: Discuss in groups and carry out a survey on the topic: "Too many people!" You can do the following things:

• Select only one small area such as your village or locality in the town / city where you live.
• Find out its area. (You can do it by walking around it. At normal speed you can cover about one kilometer in ten minutes.)
• Find out the number of people living in it.
• Find out about the people’s occupations, unemployment and poverty.

B. Listen to the Audio . Listen how the teacher talks about the population of Bangladesh and answer the following questions.

Listening text 3

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Questions

Tick the best answer.

1. Bangladesh is a small country, because a. its land area is small. b. it has about 150 million people. c. it is the $8^\text{th}$ most populous country in the world. d. it has limited resources.

2. Density of population in any country means a. all the people in a country. b. number of people living in one square kilometer. c. 1000 people living in one square kilometer. d. too many people living in one square kilometer.

3. Our yearly population growth rate is a. 1.9% b. 1.40% c. 2.1% d. 1.1%

4. Our birth rate is ______________ per thousand. a. 6.1 b. 1.40 c. 20.1 d. 14

5. What will be the size of our population in 2050? a. 150 m b. 197 m c. 217 m d. 250 m

C. Listen again and answer these questions.

1. How do you get the population growth rate of a country?
2. Why will the population of Bangladesh be so large in 2050?

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D. Read the chart and fill in the gaps with information from the table. Use comparatives and superlatives where necessary. The table shows facts about some countries including Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Sri Lanka India China

In terms of land area Bangladesh is (1) (larger) than Sri Lanka, but (2) ________ than India. China is, of course, (3) ________ of all the four countries. Sri Lanka has the (4) ________ population among the four countries. However, China has the (5) ________ population shown in the chart. In fact, China has the (6) ________ population in the world and India has the (7) ________ highest population in the world. On the other hand, China has the (8) ________ growth rate among the 4 countries. Bangladesh has (9) ________ growth rate than India, but higher birth rate than (10) ________ and (11) ________.

E. Write a paragraph about the population situation of any of the countries above. Use the facts given in the chart in D above.

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