ShoutingShouting In the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific some villagers practice a unique form of cutting trees down.

If a tree is too large to be cut with an ax, the natives cut it down by shouting at it. Men with special powers get on the tree just in the early morning hours and suddenly scream at it at the top of their lungs. After thirty days of doing this, the tree dies and falls over. The villagers' theory is that the screaming kills the spirit of the tree and, according to them, it always works. Ah, those poor nave innocents!, some people in our Western societies may think. Screaming at trees, indeed! How primitive! Don't they realise that trees can't hear us? Our first reaction is to think that we do not do things like this any longer because we have a scientific, logical mind and we use highly sophisticated machines. But, however scientific, logical and technologically prepared we may be, haven't you ever seen anyone screaming at things at the top of their lungs? For instance, I shout at the taxis and the buses and the telephone. People have told me that they have seen me yelling at the sky at times. The man next door yells at his car a lot. Last summer I heard him yell at his video VCR when it stopped working and he usually yells at his TV set while watching football matches. But, what's worst, I also shout at my wife, often just because I am in a bad mood, and my neighbour yells at his children when they are playing on the street. In the end, we realise that machines and relatives get most of the yelling we, urban educated people, do. And we may ask ourselves: Does this shouting help at all? If machines and things cannot hear us and just sit there, is our yelling more logical than the Solomon way of cutting trees down? The Solomon Islanders, however, may have a point that we should keep in mind before shouting at the people we love most: Shouting at living things may kill the spirit in them. PART ONE: READING COMPREHENSION 1. Answer the following questions without copying from the text. 1. What is the unique Solomon way of cutting trees down? 2. Who is in charge of cutting trees down in the Solomon islands? 3. How do the Solomon villagers explain the fact that the tree falls over? 4. Why don't we use such primitive methods for cutting trees down in the Western world? Mention two reasons given in the text. 5. What things does the writer's neighbour yell at? 6. Which of the following sentences (a, b or c) best summarizes the writer s ideas? (Write the sentence you choose.) a) The writer thinks that in the Western societies we should scream at people in order to get things done. b) The writer thinks that people in the Western world and people in the Solomon Islands do not behave differently after all. c) The writer thinks that the Solomon islanders are nave and stupid because they think that yelling kills trees. PART TWO: WRITING Choose ONE. Write about either 1 or 2.

Option A: Last week you had an argument with your best friend and shouted at him even if you were wrong. Now he does not want to talk to you any longer and so you have decided to write a letter of apology to him saying why you are very sorry. Write down that letter. Don t use your real name. Option B: A representative of the Solomon tribe who had never left his island before has spent a week in Barcelona. Today she/he is talking about all the things in our society which seem illogical and strange to him/her. Write down his/her talk. 3. Vocabulary Explain next words in English, write the phonetics and also an example: nave, to realise, to scream, lung, to yell. What is the translation for the poem A Roadside Stand by Robert Frost? In: Robert Frost [Edit categories] Robert Frost Read all poems of the famous poet. Comments on Robert Frost www.PoemHunter.com [Improve] Answer The poem compares the lives of people living in cities and the countryside.A sma ll time farmer builds a vegetable stand at the edge of the highway outside his h ouse in the hope that passing cars would buy the produce.He only wants to earn a living,he is not begging for money.However,no cars ever stop and the ones that even glance in the direction of the stand only comment about how the comnstructi on spoils the view of the surroundings.The farmer says that the hurt to the view is not as important as the sorrow he feels on being ignored.He only wishes for some money so that he may experience the plush life potrayed by the movies and o ther media,which the political parties are said to be refusing him. Frost goes on to say that even though these people have benefactors,they are act ually selfish and only help these "pitiful kin" to indirectly advantage themselv es.The altruists wish to make these villagers completely dependent on them for a ll their benefits and comforts,thus robbing them of the ability to think for the mselves and be independent. Frost then talks about his personal feelings,saying that he can hardly bear the thought of the farmer's dashed hopes.The open windows of the farmer's house seem to wait all day just to hear the sound of a car stopping to make a purchase. Ho wever they are always disappointed,as vehicles only stop to ask their way ahead or ask for a gallon of gas. According to the poet,the progress required has not been found by these country folk( "the requisite lift of spirit") Their lifestyles provide ample evidence to support this fact.He sometimes feel that it might be best to simply put these p eople out of their pain and hardships of existence. However,once rational thinki ng returns to his mind,he wonders how HE would feel if someone offered to do him this supposed service.