EX 1. READING
Soon there will be something new for the tourist who has been everywhere and seen everything on Earth. Spacecraft being developed by private commercial companies will soon enable private citizens to buy their own tickets to travel into space, thereby creating a space tourism industry. So far, space travel has been undertaken only by governments, but the new, privatized spaceflight industry will bring great benefits to both science and the public.
First, private space travel will benefit serious space exploration by making spaceflight cheaper. Privatization of space technology will bring technological costs down very fast because it will allow competition—and competition is one of the strongest motivators to cut costs. Thus, lowering the cost of space travel will benefit not only space tourists but also scientists, who will be able to use private space flights for research purposes.
Furthermore, privatization of space travel will accelerate the rate at which important scientific discoveries occur. The aerospace industry already sponsors a lot of groundbreaking scientific research, and adding private spaceflight companies to it will make the industry as a whole gr
ow in size, thereby employing more scientists than it does now. That increased number of working scientists means not only that more discoveries are likely to be made but also that those discoveries are likely to be made more quickly than in the past.
Finally, when governments are the sole providers of space travel, the costs are paid for by the whole taxpaying public, but with privatization, the expenses of space travel will be borne by the customers of the industry. The fact that private spaceflight operators will be able to raise funds through ticket sales means that the financial burden on taxpayers will be eased significantly.
EX 2. READING
Educators have long recognized that high school can be a difficult experience for many students. Along with the stress of challenging academic work, high school can also be a source of social, emotional, and even financial stress. One effective way of decreasing these nonacademic kinds of stress is to require students to wear a school uniform so that all students wear basically the same clothing.
One of the most obvious benefits of such a policy is that it makes high school more affordable for both students and their parents. Clothing, especially trendy, fashionable clothing, is very expensive, and teenagers usually want to have several different outfits in their wardrobes—for some, the more the better. When there is no possibility of dressing fashionably at school, a student’s clothing bill will go down drastically. sort out the facts
Furthermore, wearing the same school uniform as everyone else eliminates a significant source of discomfort and self-consciousness for many teenagers: the uncertainty that what they are wearing is “right.” Such anxiety interferes with a student’s ability to act in ways that show his or her personality to advantage.
Finally, a mandatory school-uniform policy will reduce the amount of teasing and bullying among students. Currently, many students are teased or put down simply because they dress differently from everyone else or because they can’t afford to dress like the majority. Once all students wear the same uniform, there will be much less opportunity for these kinds of intimidating behaviors.
Exercises 3 READING
Donating part of one’s income to public causes, known as charitable giving, used to be a common practice. But, in the United States charitable giving has declined substantially in recent years, and, for several reasons, it is unlikely to increase in the future.
One reason that charitable giving has fallen is simply that there is less need for charitable giving, because the United States government now provides most of the important public services. The government assumes much of the responsibility for feeding the poor, providing health care, and taking care of the victims of natural disasters—functions that charities used to perform. These government institutions of social welfare are permanent, and so the diminished need for private charitable giving will also be permanent.
Another reason people are, and will be, giving less to charities is that in the past few years there have been highly publicized disclosures that the managers of some prominent national charities were receiving huge salaries and other benefits as large or larger than salaries of heads of major for-profit corporations. These salaries and expenses for travel, fa
ncy offices, and advertising significantly reduce the percentage of donated money that went to charitable purposes. Naturally people have been turned off by these excesses and inefficiencies.
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