 "Doctors without Borders" Doctors without Borders (a) Has anyone heard of the organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)? (b) If yes, what do they do? What "borders" might these people cross? (c) Does the word "border" only refer to a political boundary? When might doctors be required to "cross borders"? (d) Are there any similar organizations in your country? What are they? What do they do? & Vocabulary Development: top
Ö Replace the vocabulary (in the left-hand column above) in the reading passage. $ Reading/Writing Exercise: top Instructions: After you’ve replaced the missing vocabulary, read the following passage and answer the comprehension questions. Medecins Sans Frontieres [Doctors without Borders] is an international organization that provides _____________ aid and emergency medical assistance. Medecins Sans Frontieres was _____________ in 1971 by a group of physicians who were _____________ with the Red Cross’ ineffective non-political position. Currently, Medecins Sans Frontieres has more than 2,000 _____________ who are treating the wounded, the sick and the starving in more than 80 countries around the globe. M.S.F. is involved in many types of programs such as: _____________ hospitals, water _____________ and training foreign medical personnel. Unlike the Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontieres is not afraid to criticize the local governments for what they see to be corrupt and dangerous political situations. M.S.F’s primary purpose is to alleviate human _____________ by protecting human rights and restoring _____________ health care. In 1999, Medecins Sans Frontieres had the opportunity to pop open a bottle of champagne because the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for not only saving lives, but also for publically _____________ political injustice and opression. Medecins Sans Frontieres combines the medical assistance, like that provided by The Red Cross, with human rights protection provided by organizations such as Amnesty International. The president of Medecins Sans Frontieres in France, Phillipe Biberson, said that he hoped the award would "shed some light once again on those his group tried to help, the starving, those living in battle zones and those suffering from diseases like malaria that rarely get the world’s attention". 1. Medecins Sans Frontieres is: (a) a group which awards the Nobel Peace Prize (b) a group of concerned doctors (c) a victim of malaria (d) a political organization 2. The word currently [in the 2nd paragraph] could be replaced by all of the following EXCEPT: (a) at present (b) at this point in time (c) prior to this time (d) now 3. When Phillipe Biberson said that he hoped the award would "shed some light once again on those his group tried to help", he was saying that: (a) Medecins Sans Frontieres has too much publicity (b) the suffering of many of the world’s poorest people is often ingored (c) many areas of the world are too dark (d) Medecins Sans Frontieres was very discouraged because they received the Nobel Peace Prize 4. All of the following statements are true EXCEPT: (a) Medecins Sans Frontieres won the 1999 Nobel Piece Prize. (b) Medecins Sans Frontieres has a staff of more than 2,000. (c) Medecins Sans Frontieres is concerned about human rights. (d) Medecins Sans Frontieres is involved in many regions around the world. 5. Do you think that Medecins Sans Frontieres deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize? Why? Why not? [Please write your answer in sentence form.]_________________________________________________________________________ " Writing Exercise: Using What You’ve Learned top Instructions: Complete the following sentences. 1. A humanitarian person _______________________________________________________ . 2. An adequate supply of _____________________________ will certainly make life easier. 3. The noun personnel refers to ____________________________ ; whereas, the adjective personal means ___________________________________________________________. 5. Poor sanitation can lead to _____________________________________________________. Instructions: The expression onomatopoeic means a combination of sounds in a word that resembles or suggests what the word refers to. For example, the words “hiss” and “bang” are onomatopoeic words. Match the onomatopoeic words on the left with the appropriate activity on the right.
Ö Can you find an example of an onomatopoeic word in the text above? ______________________ ü Grammar Exercise: Inversion top The usual word order in an English statement is SUBJECT + VERB. Occasionally, this word order is reversed, so that the subject appears after the verb; when this occurs it is called “inversion”. There are many situations where inversion occurs, but today we will only look at two of them. Study the following examples: · Rule #1 When a negative word or expression is placed at the beginning of a sentence, the subject appears after the auxiliary verb. If there is no auxiliary verb, one must be added. [original word order] I seldom go to hockey games. {There is NO auxiliary verb in this [inversion word order] Seldom do I go hockey games. (more examples) Never have I been so confused. · Rule #2 When a 2nd or 3rd Conditional is used without “if” (or “unless”). (examples) Were I you, I would study English prepositions. Instructions: Rewrite the following sentences using the inversion rules above. The first one has been done as an example. 1. Medecins Sans Frontieres seldom avoids helping the poor and the suffering. 2. I have never failed an English grammar test. ________________________________________________________________________ 3. If I were rich, I would spend every winter in Mexico. ________________________________________________________________________ 4. If Medecins Sans Frontieres had known they were going to win the Nobel Peace Prize, they would have prepared an acceptance speech. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 5. I seldom call my sister in Germany. _________________________________________________________________________ 6. [Write your own example sentence using Rule #1] _________________________________________________________________________ 7. [Write your own example sentence using Rule #2] _________________________________________________________________________ $ Additional Research: Nobel Peace Prize top Instructions: In the reading passage we learned that Medecins Sans Frontieres won the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize. Select one of the following questions (or your Instructor will assign you a specific question), and prepare a brief written report for class. If time permits, you will be asked to present your report to your classmates. 1. Medecins Sans Frontieres is involved in many countries around the world; select one of these countries and write a brief description of Medecins Sans Frontieres’ involvement in the area. [You might find the following website useful http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/ 2. Who was the Nobel Peace Prize named after? What are some of the categories for Nobel Prizes? Why is the Nobel Peace Prize considered to be such a prestigious award? You might find the following websites useful in your research: http://www.nobel.no/indexen.html and http://almaz.com/nobel/nobel.html 3. Select one of the following humanitarian/social organizations and find out about the history and ‘mission’ of the organization. (a) The United Nations http://www.un.org/ (b) The Canadian Red Cross http://www.redcross.ca/index_english.html (c) Green Peace http://www.greenpeace.org/ 4. Imagine that you are a journalist working for a famous national newspaper. You have been assigned the job of interviewing the president of Medecins Sans Frontieres in France, Phillipe Biberson. What questions would you ask him? How do you think he would respond to your questions. 5. Provide a brief biography of another previous winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. |
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