A More than a moment
1 Look at the photographs and read the text on page 12. Which photograph illustrates the text?
a And because of this black children were finally admitted to whites-only schools. ...
b The first test case of this ruling occurred in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 when nine black students tried to attend classes at the
Central High School. .1..
c Finally, at the ceremony 40 years later, she and her victim met face to face... .
d He called for greater understanding between races, a call which echoes down the years in the wake of misunderstandings between different peoples and religions of the world
e The photographs Counts took that day were soon published all over America and the world...
f William Counts had been a student at the Central High School himself...
g And so there was...
A II MORE THAN A MOMENT
Some photographs, like the one taken by photographer William Counts outside the Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas (USA) all those years ago, are so powerful that they help to change the course of history.
In 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States of America decided that segregated education (previously accepted as ‘separate but equal’) was unconstitutional.
But racism was a fact of life in those days, and many white Americans were bitterly opposed to multiracial schooling. The governor of the state of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, sent soldiers of the National Guard to the high school to stop black children from attending classes there, and to ‘maintain order'.
I2 I Now 26 years old, he arrived at the scene with his camera after only a few days as a photographer with the Arkansas Democrat newspaper. Nobody paid him too much attention because he was a local man. As a result he was not attacked by the angry crowds as many photographers from out of town were that day, and he was able to take his famous picture.
Counts had recognised immediately that the moment the black students tried to get to the school there would be trouble. |з I Elizabeth Eckford, the first
of the nine, was turned back by the soldiers, and Counts, running backwards in front of her, started taking his pictures. And that was how the world saw a picture of a 15-year-old white girl, Hazel Bryan, shouting abuse at the black student. ‘The crowd were right in her ear,’ Counts recalled many years later, ‘they were yelling their hate, but she [Eckford] never lost her composure, she just remained so dignified, so determined in what she was doing.’
They caused outrage. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the president of the United States, saying how moved he was by pictures of the ‘disgraceful occurrences’, took control of the National Guard and ordered federal troops to escort the ‘Little Rock Nine’ to school despite the objections of the Arkansas governor. Desegregated education had begun.
Forty years later, the nine black students were awarded the congressional medal of honour by American president Bill Clinton in a ceremony at the Central High School. In his speech, he said, ‘Like so many Americans, I can never fully repay my debt to these nine people, For with their innocence, they purchased more freedom for me, too, and for all white people.’
But he was far from optimistic about the future of race relations: ‘Today, children of every race walk through the same door, but then they often walk down different halls,’ he said. ‘Not only in this school, but across America, they sit in different classrooms, they eat at different tables. They even sit in different parts of the bleachers at the football game. Far too many communities are all white, all black, all Latino, ail Asian. Indeed, too many Americans of all races have actually begun to give up on the idea of integration and the search for common ground.’ Is
And what of Hazel Bryan Massery, the girl with her face screwed up in anger and hatred? Five years after the photograph was taken she rang up Elizabeth Eckford to apologise. !l am deeply ashamed of the photograph,’ she said later, ‘I was an immature 15- year-old. That’s the way things were. I grew up in a segregated society and I thought that’s the way it was and that’s the way it should be.’
wanted to end my identification as the poster child for the hate generation, trapped in the image captured in that photograph. I know my life was more than a moment.’ And William Counts was there to take a new photograph of another moment - of reconciliation.
Language in chunks
4. Match the phrases in italics from the text (a-g, on the left) with their explanations (1-7, on the right).
a a fact of life
b bitterly opposed to
с I can never fully repay my debt to
d in the wake of
e she never lost her composure
f there would be trouble
g to change the course of history
1 after (and as a result of) an event
2 make things different for ever
3 something that is or was always true
4 in strong disagreement with
5 something bad was going to happen
6 stopped looking calm
7 give someone what we think we owe them
5 Use the words in brackets to re-write the following sentences so that they mean more or less the same. Use the phrases in italics from Activity 4.
Example: a -She never lost her composure when the police arrested her.
a She didn’t seem to be upset when the police arrested her. (composure)
b Everybody gets colds and Eu from time to time, (fact)
с Nothing was ever the same after the Industrial Revolution, (course)
d It is impossible to thank you enough, (debt)
e I am totally against your plan, (bitterly)
f They built new flood defences after the terrible storm, (wake)
g When he saw the people in the stadium, he knew things were going to go wrong, (trouble)
keys:
A 1
The correct answer is a.
A 2
a This sentence does not fit in the text, b - 1, с - 6, d - 5, с - 4, f - 2, g - 3,
A 3
a white student at Little Rock’s Central High School
b - shouted at a black student
-apologised
-reconciled
с -1957
-1962
-1997
d photographer
e - took photo of black student entering white school
- took photo of Hazel and Elizabeth
f - 1957/1997
g president, USA
h awarded medal to black students
i 1997
j president, USA
к - took control of National Guard
- sent federal troops our 1 1957
m governor, Arkansas
n sent soldiers to stop black students
о 1957
p black student at Little Rock
q - first of nine black students at Little Rock school
- met Hazel r -1957
- 1997
A 4
a 3
b 4
с 7
d 1
e 6
f 5
g 2
А 5
a She never lost her composure when the police arrested her.
b It’s a fact of life that everybody gets colds and flu from time to time,
с The Industrial Revolution changed the course of history.
d I can never fully repay my debt to you.
e I am bitterly opposed to your plan,
f They built new flood defences in the wake of the terrible storm, / In the wake of the terrible storm, they built new flood defences.
g When he saw the people in the stadium, he knew there would be trouble.
B The Big Brother Site - The place where civil liberties are put to the test
Thank you Maurice Gatsonides?
Although most people do not know who Maurice Gatsonides was, almost all of us know about his most famous invention. It is used in over 35 countries worldwide. In Britain it is sometimes called the ‘Gatsometer’.
Gatsonides was a Belgian rally driver who invented the speed cameras which you can see on motorways all over Europe, the Gulf region, North and South America and the Far East. The cameras are activated either by sensors on the surface of the road or by a radar device which picks up cars as they pass. Pictures of vehicles are taken less than half a second apart, and this tells the machine exactly how fast they are travelling.
Speeding - and attempts to control it - is not a modern phenomenon. For example, when the first ‘horseless carriages’ were introduced in Britain in the 19th century, they were not allowed to go faster than a walking pace. A man had to walk in front of these new vehicles with a red flag in order to protect the public. But all that changed in 1896 when the maximum speed limit was increased to 14 miles per hour (22.5 kph). That was too late for Londoner Waiter Arnold, however. A few months before the new law came into effect, he had been fined a shilling (five pence) for driving at 8 miles an hour (nearly 13 kph), in a 2 mph speed limit area. He was caught by a policeman on a bicycle who chased him and brought him to justice.
Speed limits are faster now, from 50 mph (80 kph) on most US freeways to 70 mph (112 kph) on British motorways. Other countries set their own limits. In Germany, for example, the top autobahn speed limit is 130 kph. Yet people still die as a result of speeding, especially in built-up areas where the difference between being hit by a car at 20 mph and 30 mph is often the difference between injury and death. Speed cameras, in towns and on the open road, are designed to stop the big toll of injury and death on our roads. As such they are, surely, uncontroversial.
Or are they?
For and against
There are people who hate speed cameras. Some go even further and set cameras on fire or cover their lenses with black paint so that they do not work.
Among the arguments against speed cameras are that:
• Motorways are safe. Speed isn’t the main cause of accidents.
• When speed cameras are visible - because they are painted in bright colours - drivers slow down. But many speed cameras are nearly invisible or hidden so their only function must be to make money for the police.
• People say that speed cameras have lowered the accident rate, but this could be due instead to better road surfaces, advances in vehicle design and better security measures (which means that not so many cars are stolen by young ‘joyriders’).
Yet, police forces around the world reply by saying that the results of experiments are quite clear. In Britain, for example, the first UK trial of a brightly painted ‘Gatso’ camera at a notorious black spot saw an 80 per cent reduction in injury and accidents. In towns, speeds have been cut and anyway, they point out, anything that saves even one life must be worth the effort.
What's your view? Do you love your Gatsometers or would you like to see them all torn up and thrown away? Contact us and join the debate.
unite 2: B
1 Write the names or numbers in the space provided.
a He invented speed cameras
b He was punished for going too fast, с the speed at which accidents are
often fatal
d the percentage by which accidents fell in a UK study
2 Match the sentences halves. The first one is done for you.
a A man with a red flag
b A policeman on a bicycle
с Police authorities around the world
d Some people believe that
e Some people think that improved road safety
f Some protesters
g Speed cameras
h Speed cameras work because
i The Gatsometer
j Walter Arnold
к When a highly-visible speed camera
l You can drive faster
1 ... believe that speed cameras make the roads safer.
2 ... caught Walter Arnold driving too fast.
3 ... is a British nickname for speed cameras.
4 ... is the result of better car design and road surfacing rather than speed cameras.
5 ... of radars or road-based sensors.
6 ... on German autobahns than on American freeways.
7 ... speed cameras which you can’t see are just a way of getting money from drivers.
8 ... try to stop speed cameras working.
9 ... used to walk in front of the first cars.
10 ... was put at a black spot, the accident rate fell.
11 ... was travelling 6 mph too fast.
12 ... were invented by the Belgian rally driver Maurice Gatsonides.
3 Complete each blank with one word or phrase from the text. Do not change it in any way.
a The alarm was..........when the thief walked through a radar beam by mistake.
b ..........were placed on the patient’s skin to measure temperature and heart rate.
с When oil spills out of a ship, it remains on the..........of the water.
d A biometric scanner is a..........for checking someone’s identity.
e The increase in the world’s temperature is a..........that cannot be denied.
f We call an area..........if there are many houses and shops there.
g Years of playing American football have taken a heavy on his health, which is now..........poor.
h We call something..........when we think that people are not likely to argue about it.
i We call young people who steal cars and then drive them very fast just for fun.......... .
j A..........is a place where more accidents happen than in many other places.
Keys B
B 1
a Maurice Gatsonides
b Walter Arnold
с 30 miles an hour
d 80%
В 2 В 3
a 9 a activated
b 2 b Sensors
с 1 с surface
d 7 d device
e 4 e phenomenon
f 8 f built-up
g 12 g toll
h 5 h uncontroversial
i 3 i joyriders
i 11 j black spot
к 10
l 6
С Summarising (newspaper headlines)
1 Look at these newspaper headlines and answer the questions.
a What is the story behind the headlines, do you think?
b What, typically, is left out in newspaper headlines?
What verb tenses are common?
Shake-up in car parking fees
Family "owe lives" to smoke detector
Little Rock photographer dies at 70
Photo booth murder suspect arrested
Queen's horse in photo finish win
2 Read the following story. How many headlines can you write which summarise the story using some of the words in blue? (You may have to change some of the words, e.g. from verbs to nouns, etc.)
A mother of three escaped injury when the car she was driving plunged into a river. She had been driving home after dropping her children at school. She was rescued by a passing cyclist who dived into the river and pulled her from the car. ‘I owe that man my life,’ said Mrs Martha Galvan, ‘he’s a hero, but his identity is a mystery. He ran off after he had rescued me so I don't know who he is.’
Example: River plunge mother escapes injury
3 Read the following stories and circle the words you may want to use in headlines which will summarise them.
When James Knight, a university student, went to collect his photographs at Boots 24-hour developing centre on Thursday, he got the shock of his life. Two of the photographs showed his girlfriend standing in a street in London. But behind her were two robbers running out of a bank. ‘I didn’t notice them at the time,’ Knight said, ‘but when I showed them to the police they were very excited.’ The police have since made two arrests.
The Swedish singer Carla was making no comment yesterday after an incident at Mexico City Airport in which she hit out at a press photographer, breaking his nose. The attack took place as the singer was arriving from Sweden for a countrywide tour. Witnesses said that Carla posed for the waiting photographers with her 6-year-old daughter who was accompanying her, but when one photographer, American Brad Puttnam, kept taking photographs of the mother and daughter, the singer lashed out. Puttnam is threatening to sue. The singer’s publicity aide says that Carla regrets the incident and just wants to be left alone.
4 Write as many headlines as you can for the stories. Get as much information in the headlines as possible. Compare your headlines with the suggestions in the answer key.
Compare your answers with the suggestions in the answer key .
Keys С 1 a Possible answers
- There’s going to be a big change in charges for parking cars.
- A family was caught in a fire and escaped because :a smoke detector warned them about the fire.
- A photographer who took a famous photo at Little Rock has died.
- Someone suspected of killing someone in a photo booth has been arrested.
- A horse belonging to the Queen won a race, but it was a very close race.
b
Articles are often left out. The present
tense is common.
С 2
Possible answers
- River plunge mother escapes injury
- Mother of three escapes injury in car river plunge
- Mother rescued by passing cyclist
- Cyclist dives in river, pulls woman from car
- Mystery hero saves mother in river plunge
С 3
- student, photographs, shock, robbers, bank, police
- singer, airport, attack, photographer, sue
С 4
Possible answers
- Student’s photo in robbery shock
- Lucky shot for police
- Bank robbers caught by student’s photo
- Singer attacks photographer in airport row
- Photographer threats to sue after airport attack