Unit xli The Sonic Teenager Deterrent

If you're out with a group of people, but you're the only one who can hear an unbearable high-pitched noise and it's driving you crazy, the chances are that you're the only person under 20. And if you're out late at night and congregating around a shop or in a car park, the chances are even higher that what you're hearing is the Sonic Teenager Deterrent, a gadget specifically designed to drive young trouble makers away. Unfortunately, the Mosquito, as it's otherwise known, makes no distinction between well-behaved teens and those in gangs. The under 20s all have the capacity to hear high-frequency band widths and 90 per cent of older people do not. The Mosquito is a remote-controlled device that comes packaged in a small black box and emits bursts of pulsing sounds that are effective more than 20 yards away. It is the brainchild of Howard Stapleton, who was once an electronics apprentice at British Aerospace. Stapleton created it after becoming fed up with local youths who were intimidating customers at his local shop. His four children were his original guinea pigs, and Stapleton knew his invention worked when they clutched their ears and ran away. Now that it has been bought by hundreds of shopowners and several local authorities, the Mosquito is tormenting many other teens who are loitering in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Post-reading tasks

1. Underline the answers to the questions in the text.

1. What is the purpose of the Sonic Teenager Deterrent?

2. What is its other name?

3. What does it look like?

4. What does it do?

5. Who invented it and why?

6. Who did the inventor use to test the Sonic Teenager Deterrent?

2. Find words that mean

1. so extreme that you cannot deal with the pain/feeling (adj).

2. to gather together in a group (v).

3. a difference between two things.

4. a machine or piece of equipment that does a particular thing.

5. to send something out into the air, for example gas, sound, light, heat.

6. an original idea.

7. to deliberately make someone frightened or nervous.

8. someone who is used in an experiment.

9. to hold something firmly because you are in pain.

10. to stand or wait in a public place, with the possible intention of committing a crime.

Unit xlii Samoa

When reporting on foreign culture, the media often focus on what seems alien, and the Polynesian island of Samoa is certainly a target of this kind of reporting. Whenever a journalist comes looking for a story, they inevitably focus on the fa'afafine (Samoan men who dress as women) and overlook most other aspects of Samoan culture. Almost without exception, they misrepresent the valued place that a fa'afafine has in the community.

Fa'afafine translates as in the manner of a woman. In traditional Samoan society, when a family had a large number of male children, one would be selected to help his mother. The choice would be based on which son showed the most ability and interest in domestic chores, and he would then be dressed and raised as female. The choice was in no way based on the sexual preferences the family believed the son might have. It was a choice based on who was best suited to a certain kind of labour. The fa'afafine's abilities in the home and in producing crafts, combined with physical strength, were a useful asset to Samoan communities. When the son grew up, he would marry and have children, as is expected of all Samoan men, but continue to retain a female identity. Modern-day Samoa has strong Christian beliefs, as well as a firm sense of cultural identity, and many Samoans resent the Western description of fa'afafine as homosexual.

Post-reading tasks

Decide if the sentences are True (T), False (F), or if the information is Not Given (NG) in the text.

1. Journalists tend to choose unusual things in other cultures to write about.

2. Journalists prefer to avoid writing articles about the fa'afafine in Samoa.

3. Journalists do not understand the role of the fa'afafine in Samoan society.

4. Samoan parents choose a son to become a fa'afafine when they have no daughters.

5. Fa'afafine were chosen according to their particular work skills.

6. A fa'afafine went back to living as a man once he got married.

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