HOMEWORK 4: Language Awareness

Below are two editorials which discuss the plan of California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger to replace school textbooks with digital books in an attempt to
reduce Californias budget deficit in 2009.

Read the texts carefully and decide whether they adopt a positive or a negative
attitude toward Schwarzenegger and his plan. Justify your answer by
considering (i) the naming devices used to refer to Arnold Schwarzenegger and
(ii) the attributes and qualities, that is the noun phrases or adjectives that
attribute certain features to Schwarzenegger.

TEXT A

Thunk! The Terminator has struck, sending piles of school books crashing to the
floor. Next, he will set fire to them with his red laser eyes, and stamp on the ashes
with his big metallic feet until not a single French verb or periodic table remains.
In his typically robust style, Arnold Schwarzenegger has terminated the textbook.
From next August, the tech-savvy children of California, where he is governor, will
get reference works for maths and science online, while hand-held digital reading
devices which can store hundreds of books beckon in the future.
In the Governator's opinion, textbooks are "outdated", putting them on a par with
other things that have served us perfectly well until now, such as five-day cricket
matches, The Archers or the monarchy.
But while online resources may work out cheaper, and be easier to update, than
all those hefty tomes, what would school be without the chance to doodle a moustache
on Monsieur du Pont or turn down the corners to mark the tricky sections? What's
more, there is something psychologically reassuring about a book. It is an
embodiment of knowledge that is tangible and finite; you can work your way through
its chapters, and see exactly where you stand.
Nothing can beat a dog-eared paperback in the bath or on a beach, and I suspect
that nothing can beat the hefty smack of a textbook landing on the desk of a distracted
adolescent. To demonstrate their obsolescence, the governor picked up a few chunky
specimens and said he could always use them "for the curls", a nod to his body-
building days. He should work on his judgment, rather than his muscles: books will be
around long after his policies and his movies are forgotten.

TEXT B

IN HIS SPEECH last week on the state's budget crisis, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger proposed a way for schools to eventually save hundreds of millions
of dollars a year: digital textbooks.
It's an intriguing idea that may be a bit premature, but should be seriously
considered now at least at the high school level in selected districts.
Textbook publishers target California and other large states with a constant
stream of expensive books, teachers' manuals and other materials.
Publishers promote new curricula to supplant ones they sold a just a few years
earlier or offer new texts that are little different from current ones except for the
format. Too often, schools approve the new books, even before the normal seven-year
life span of the average text. As a result, California schools spend huge amounts of
money of books in excess of what is needed.
Going digital could sharply reduce costs. It is far cheaper to develop digital
instructional materials than textbooks, which are expensive to print and have shorter
life spans. Also, digital materials can be more interactive and more attuned to a
generation brought up with computers and other digital technology.
The governor's digital education project is already under way, identifying digital
textbooks that are free and downloadable from nonprofits and other providers.
The plan is to have digital links to high school science and math online by Aug.
10. That is a good start. But for digitalized educational materials to supplant printed
textbooks, access to computers by all California students will be needed. That is an
attainable goal.
While the governor's digital education plan is not likely to make a big difference
in reducing the current budget deficit, it is a commendable step in the right direction
and should be pursued with vigour.