Another country

Level 3 Advanced
1 Key words
Fill the gaps using these key words from the text:
carnage
snippet
antithesis
agrarian
predominant
heinous
excommunicate
1. If something is

, it is extremely evil.

2. A
3.

schism
shun
peeping Tom

is an occasion when one group divides into two groups because of a disagreement.
is a situation in which there is a lot of death and destruction.

4. If you
5. A

someone, you no longer allow them to be a member of a particular church.

is a small piece of something, especially information or news.

6. If you
7. The
8. A
9. An
10. The

someone, you avoid them intentionally.

of something is its exact opposite.
is someone who enjoys secretly watching other people.
society is one based on farming.
group in a society is the main or most important one.

2 What do you know?

Read these statements about the Amish and decide if they are True or False. Then read the text to check
your answers.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

The Amish live in New York state, USA.

The Amish travel by horse-drawn buggy.
The Amish religion originated in England.
Amish people are opposed to everything modern.
Most Amish are farmers.
Most Amish teenagers who leave the Amish community never return.

Another country
Ed Pilkington on the extraordinary survival, and even prosperity, of the Amish in the modern world

NEWS LESSONS / Another country / Advanced

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Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2006

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In all the newspaper reports and hours of satellite television coverage devoted to last weeks carnage in
the schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, it was the little details that stood out and made you think.
The fact that the police had to use vans to take the parents to hospital to be at the bedsides of their mortally
wounded children because they refused to go by police helicopter. The scene of worried mothers timidly
peekingovertheheadsoftelevisioncameramenlmingapressconferenceneartheschool:whilethe
pictures were being beamed instantly to Shanghai, they had to be there in person as they had no televisions
at home. There is something about those snippets of life in the Amish community of Lancaster county that is
strangelyhardtodealwith.Ontopofthesheerhorrorofthekillingofvegirlsbyamilktruckdriver,thereis
bewilderment. How can it be, in this digital age where news spreads at the speed of light, that people living

Another country
Level 3 Advanced
within a few miles of the tragedy were still learning by word of mouth what Charles Roberts had done hours
after he had unloaded his 9mm semi-automatic handgun?
Howcanitbethathechosetoinicthisrevengeforsomeinsulthesufferedattheageof12ongirlsfroma
communitywhoseveryexistenceistheantithesisoftheacthecommitted?TheAmisharepacist.Attime
of war they are conscientious objectors, prepared for civilian duties but refusing anything military. The
community where Roberts exacted his revenge, 80km west of Philadelphia, has no police force and no
guns. In the United States that is quite something. Anyone who can recall Witness, the 1985 Harrison Ford
thriller, will have a feeling for the setting of Lancaster county. Green rolling hills with Holstein cattle,
weather-beaten barns, unadorned buildings, and black horse-drawn buggies. Add to that the plain dress,
as they call it and it all looks like what it is a community of agrarians largely unchanged since the late 19th
century. Note the word largely. Among the many misrepresentations of the Amish is that they are a group
that is completely opposed to modernity.
In reality, they are the product of change, some of it dramatic. The emergence of todays Amishes is a story of
many schisms. Their parent faith, Mennonitism, was born of a split in Switzerland in 1525, when the Mennonites
broke from the Protestant reform. Later, in Switzerland in 1693, the Amish broke from the wider Mennonite
communityinanotherdispute.TheAmishemigratedtoPennsylvaniaaroundthe1730stobenetfromthe
Quaker William Penns offer of protection for persecuted religions. The Old Order of Amishes, the predominant
group of people in Lancaster county, was then formed by another schism when they broke from their fellow
members in a dispute over the technological changes brought by the industrial revolution. The Old Order was
determined to take from technology only those elements that matched their interpretation of the Bible.
It is easy to get it wrong about the Amish, says Peter Seibert, president of the Heritage Centre of Lancaster
county and a non-Amish. They are not about putting up walls to block out the modern world. What they are
about is adapting their community to modernity in order to preserve its essential being as a simple agrarian
society. They will pick and choose what they want from our world.
So they will not have television, not because it is intrinsically heinous but because they do not want their
children exposed to sexual and violent images. They travel by buggy to keep the community together and
avoidthedisruptivesocialinuenceofthemotorcar.AndthereissomemodernityinLancastercounty.They
will not have phones in the house, but they will in the nearby shed where they run a woodworking business.
They wont have electrical gadgets but they will have battery-powered cash registers and even laptops.
Thats a subtlety lost in the peeping-Tom relationship that the real world has with the Amish.
Tourists can be quite disrespectful. They walk right into Amish houses or schools assuming that they are
there as an attraction. They have no sense that this is a living community that greatly prizes its privacy, says
researcherStephenScott.Thejokeis,asScottpointsout,thattheAmisharetheoneswhobenet.Theymay
dislikebeingtreatedaszooanimalsbuttheyalsomakeagreatdealofmoneyoutoftheowoftourists.
That duality was illustrated most vividly a couple of years ago when a reality TV company shot Amish in the
City, a show in which a group of Amish teenagers were taken out of their communities and transported to
downtown LA. Yet the Amish faith could accommodate even that. The teenagers were going through what is
known as running around years, the period between the end of school, at the age of 14, and the entry into
the church through baptism in ones late teens or early 20s.

NEWS LESSONS / Another country / Advanced

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2006

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Inthosevetoeightyearsoffreedomthechildrenarenotofciallymembersofthechurchsocannotbe
shunned or excommunicated. The result is a community that is thriving. 80% of the teenagers who move
away from the community eventually return. The main pressure on the Amish is now population growth,
coupled with a lack of arable land on which they can subsist.

Another country
Level 3 Advanced
Noneofthiswillbeanycomforttotheparentsandneighboursofthevegirlswhodiedinlastweeksshooting
ortheotherswhoremaincriticallyill.Anycomfortwillcomefromtheirfaithitself.Seibertputsitwell:Forthem
this is Gods will, and that is all. Our world is all about the individual. Theirs is all about the community before
God and the better life they will lead after death. That is hard for us to comprehend, but that is how it is.
Guardian News & Media Ltd 2006

3 Comprehension check
Choose the best answer:
1. Why was Charles Roberts act the antithesis of the Amish way of life?
a. Because he exacted revenge for an insult against him at the age of 12.
b.BecausetheAmisharepacistsandheusedviolenceagainstthem.
c. Because the police force in Lancaster county has no guns.
2. According to Peter Seibert, the Amish
a. are largely unchanged since the 19th century.
b. put up walls to block out the modern world.
c. are trying to preserve their simple agrarian society.
3. Why dont the Amish have television?
a. Because they dont want their children to see sexual and violent images.
b. Because they believe television is intrinsically evil.
c. Because they are opposed to everything modern, including television.
4. What is the main problem the Amish now face?
a. Peeping Tom tourists.
b.Theinuenceofmodernityallaroundthem.
c. A growing population and a lack of land for farming.

4 Vocabulary FInd the Word

Lookinthersttwoparagraphsofthetextandndthesewordsorexpressions:

NEWS LESSONS / Another country / Advanced

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2006

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1. a phrasal verb meaning to be easy to notice because of being different (para. 1)

2. a verb meaning to look at something quickly, especially secretly or from behind something (para. 1)
3. a noun meaning a feeling of being extremely confused (para. 1)
4. a phrase meaning someone who refuses to take part in a war because they are morally opposed to it (para. 2)
5. an adjective meaning damaged or made rough by being exposed to wind and rain (para. 2)
6. an adjective meaning not decorated or made to look more attractive (para. 2)
7. a noun phrase meaning a light vehicle pulled by a horse (para. 2)
8. a noun meaning a false or inaccurate description of someone (para. 2)

Another country
Level 3 Advanced
5 Vocabulary Collocations
Match the verbs in the left-hand column with the nouns and noun phrases in the right-hand column
1. to exact

a. a weapon

2. to beam

b. a business

3. to unload

c. revenge

4. to run

d. a television programme

5. to shoot

e. a better life

6. to lead

f. television pictures

6 Vocabulary Nouns and Adjectives

Complete the table
Noun

Adjective

1. disruption
2.

subtle

3.

timid

4. bewilderment
5. tragedy
6. conscience
7.

modern

8. disrespect

7 Discussion

NEWS LESSONS / Another country / Advanced

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2006

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Imagine that you lived in a society that was isolated from the modern world. What things would you miss? What
aspects of the modern world would you be happy to avoid?