3LT - Cleft Sentences & Airbnb Row (lesson 1) PDF

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CLEFT SENTENCES Read about a famous group of musicians. What reasons for success does the writer give? The Jackson Five were one of the biggest groups of the 1970s. It was this group that launched the career of Michael Jackson. One reason why they were so successful was that they appealed to people of different generations all over the world. This success was not purely the result of musical talent, however. The Jackson Five story shows that what is really needed to develop musical ability is long hours of rehearsal. The person who pushed them to succeed was their strict father, Joseph Jackson. It was he who made the boys practice every evening after school. Joe Jackson’s relationship with his sons might have suffered, but what really made the group a success was his vision. To emphasise specific information, we can change the usual structure of a sentence and use two clauses instead of one. This is called a cleft (divided) sentence. Complete the table,1-4 with sentences from the text, and 5-9 using the word in brackets. Non – cleft form

Cleft form

The group launched the career of It + be + noun + relative clause: Michael Jackson. (1)……………………………………………….. They were so successful because they Subject + relative clause + be + complement appealed to people … (2)……………………………………………….. Their strict father, Joseph Jackson, Subject + relative clause + be + complement pushed them to succeed. (3)……………………………………………….. His vision was what made the group a What + verb phrase + clause success. (4)……………………………………………….. Jay Z is so successful because he (5) The reason ………………………………… understands the music industry. (why) …………………………………………………... Elvis Presley lived in a place called (6) The place …………………………………… Graceland. (where) …………………………………………………… The concert took place on my birthday. (7) The day …………………………………….. (when) …………………………………………………… I like music these days because of the (8) ……………………………………………….. wide variety of styles. (is) …………………………………………………… I like the lyrics on this album. (What)

(9) ………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………

THE AIRBNB ROW SHOWS PREJUDICE MATTERS – AND NOT JUST TO ITS VICTIMS

Members of Airbnb, the site that allows users to host travellers or stay in other people’s homes when on holiday, were informed this weekend by email of a new “community commitment”. From today when they log on they must accept an agreement that reads: “You commit to treat everyone – regardless of race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or age – with respect, and without judgment or bias.” Users who don’t agree must stop hosting or travelling with the site. 7. The company explains to its users located in 34,000 cities around the world: “The principles of inclusion and respect are important to us and to our community, and we require that all our users abide by this policy.” Like it, or you can sling your hook, Airbnb seems to be saying. So is this a spontaneous gesture of loving kindness on the company’s part? Not exactly. 12. The days of civil rights struggles, anti-discrimination laws and “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” topping the charts may have long gone. But Airbnb has discovered that prejudice is very much alive and kicking in the digital age. The company leapt into action earlier this year following a series of high-profile discrimination claims that left serious dents in its brand image. In July 2015, the hashtag #AirBnbwhileblack was created after Airbnb user Quirtina Crittendon found herself continuously declined as a guest when she tried to rent properties. She says it was only when she shortened her first name to Tina and swapped her profile picture with a generic cityscape image that the rejections stopped. 20. More race discrimination stories followed, from community members such as Rohan Gilkes, whose blog post about how his accommodation requests were cancelled went viral. To its credit, the company enlisted the help of former US attorney general Eric Holder and Laura Murphy of the American Civil Liberties Union in a bid to shake up its policies. It also promised to increase the diversity of its workforce and bring in anti-bias training. 25. It’s highly unlikely that discrimination by all users will come to an abrupt halt as a result of users accepting the new terms. And Airbnb’s approach appears to stop short of banning the use of profile pictures and names, as suggested by some affected users. But as a so-called minority traveller it’s helpful to get an indication of which companies offer a welcoming approach, at least in principle. 30. For too long it’s been assumed that anti-discrimination policy should stay in its marginal place as something that no one much cares about. But research shows that discrimination is a hefty risk for black travellers in particular. A recent Harvard study of 6,400 listings in five US cities found that users with distinctively black names like Tamika and Darnell were 16% more likely to be refused Airbnb accommodation compared with users with distinctively white-sounding names like Brett and Kristen. 36. Hosts would rather burn a hole in their own pocket and forgo an average charge per night of around £55-70 by rejecting black guests, the researchers found. The tribulations of Airbnb provide a warning that discrimination isn’t only a matter of seriousness to the victims involved. Rival Airbnb-style companies have been launched recently as a means of offering travellers safe accommodation experiences, like Noirbnb and Innclusive aimed at black users. When mainstream companies don’t serve particular groups of consumers well

enough, new enterprises very quickly muscle in on their territory. And those who ignore matters of bias, prejudice or downright bigotry do so at their peril: we simply won’t waste our hard-earned money on them if they aren’t seen to be taking action. From The Guardian, 1st November 2016 1. Explain in your own words what Aibnb are doing to prove that “prejudice matters” to the company. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 2. Why does the author question Airbnb’s action as being “a spontaneous gesture of loving kindness” (line 10)? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 3. What is implicit about the content of the song “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” mentioned in lines 12-13? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 4. Find an idiomatic expression in the text that means “go away” in a slightly impolite way. ________________________________________________________________________ 5. Find one example of a bi-colon in the text. ________________________________________________________________________

6. Find an example of a cleft sentence in the text and rewrite it using a more conventional word order. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

7. Rewrite the sentences in lines 22-24 (“The company enlisted the help of… It also promised to increase the diversity of its workforce…”), beginning as follows: Not only ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 8. Find two phrasal verbs in the text and write a suitable synonym for them, as they are used in the text. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 9. What misconception about discrimination does the author draw our attention to? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 10. Explain what the author means when he says: “Hosts would rather burn a hole in their own pocket” (line 36). ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

11. Paraphrase the following: “When mainstream companies don’t serve particular groups of consumers well enough, new enterprises very quickly muscle in on their territory” (line 41-42). ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________...