READING 52 Look at the photos on page 66 and answer the questions. + Who are the creative people in the photographs? 2 What do you know about them? 3 What do you think they have in common? 5b Work with a partner and discuss the statements. + More U.S. presidents have been left-handed than right-handed. Left-handed people are better at foreign/second, language learning than right-handed people. 3 Leftchanded people are likely to win at tennis, boxing and baseball + Lef-handed people are generally healthier and wealthier. 5 Left-handed people are more likely to be women. Right-handed people are better at doing more than cone thing at the same time. In the pas, le-handedness was considered undesirable. © Read the article. Are the statements in Exercise 5b Sue, false or not given? 7 Applying ideas from the text Work with a partner and discuss the questions, © How many left-handed people do you know? Are CREATIVITY VOCABULARY IDIOMS WITH HAND 8a Complete the sentences with the iioms inthe box. a safe pair ofhands —givemea hand got my hands full hand in hand — handsare tied on hand time on my hands turn her hand to anything Ihave so much work to do. I've really __! It's amazing how multi-talented she is. She can You can trust him with any task. He's I?m bored. I've got nothing to do. I've got V’d love to help, but I'm afraid I’m not allowed My lf you need anything, just call. 'm always tohelp. 1'm really finding this problem very difficult to solve. Do you think you could z 8 Some people say that genius goes anene _with madness. 8b Work with a partner. Use the idioms in Exercise 8a to give an example of a situation which applies to you. SPEAKING 9a Work with a partner. Choose one of the objects from the box and think of new uses for it. You have two minutes to come up with ideas. they male or female? Which ideas in the article do you think are true? book Do you think you can ‘spot’ a left-handed person? How are they ‘different’? 4 Look at page 183. Which, if any, of the authors of this book do you think are left-handed? Why? coffee cup paperclip pen spoon Ob Repeat the process with a different object. 9c Join up with another pair. Turn to page 162 and discuss your results. On the other hand Se another instalment in our series ‘ex sifted people, Jane Frank takes ‘= loolf at a very special group. E you want a quick insight into seone’s abilities, throw a ball and see chs hand they catch it with, Left- Sendedness is relatively uncommon, secounting for around ten percent of the Sepulation. However, Chris McManus, s his book Right Hand, Left Hand, argues ifichanders as a group have up ed an above-average achievers. Interestingly, x out ofthe last seven U.S. presidents been left-handed. Research by Dr Alan Searleman of St Lwrence University has shown that ‘banded people are more intellectually ‘ete, with more of them having IQs of meee 140 compared to their right-handed sentezparts, They are alo more creative, -seecesful and eloquent, with vocabularies Lup toa third wider. “This is perhaps why there are more left-handers in creative professions such as music, art and writing. However, interestingly, one in four of the Apollo astronauts were left handed. So- called lefties’ are also often better at sport. Lef-handed college graduates in the USA hhave also been found to be twenty-six percent richer. Perhaps suprisingly, lef- hhandedinesis three times more common inmales than in females.” So, what differentiates them? Lefi- hhanders’ brains are said to be structured. differently. One theory is that they process information via ‘visual simultaneous’ methods, where several threads of thought can be processed at the same time, making it easier for them. to mulitask and solve problems than for right-handers. The later, according to the theory, process information using analysis, breaking problems down into pieces and analysing them one ata time. Lefichanders use synthesis, which means they solve a problem by looking at it as a whole. In spite ofall their talents and skills, historically, lefi-handed people have often faced prejudice and discrimination ‘The origins of the word lf have negative connotations in many languages. For cxample, gauche, siniser and eleard are among translations from French, Latin and German. In English, the word sinister became identified with evil or bad luck, Schools in many societies foreee children to use their right hands, which seriously affected their development. In contrast, igi isa synonym for comet or pmper and can stand for authority and. justice in English and in many European Tanguages. In the inal analysis, however, it may be that left is, in fact, better than right!68 GREAT THINKERS SPEAKING 1 Work in groups. Think of five great thinkers whose ideas have influenced people's lives and rank them in order of importance. Then compare your ideas with another group. 2 What do you know about Confucius, Swami Vivekananda, Sir Isaac Newton and Ibn Sina READING 3 Read the texts quickly and note down key information about each person. é Pe Confucius was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy deeply influenced thought and life in a variety of countries, including China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam. ® He was born in Lu State in 551 BC and died in 497 BC. | In China he was better known as ‘Master Kong’ A number of academics have compared Confucius influence on Chinese history with that of Socrates in the West. His social philosophy, recorded in The Analects, largely revolved around the concept of rén, ‘compassion’ or ‘loving others’, Confucius believed that the ruler lived to serve the people and should have a range of qualities, namely Li (observing ritual, propriety and etiquette), Yi (righteousness) and Xin (honesty and trustworthiness). He also believed in ancestral worship, strong family loyalty and respect to elders. inda, also known as Narendra Nath Datta, was born in Kolkata, India, in 1863 and died in 1902, Vivekananda was one of India’s most influential spiritual teachers and helped introduce easter philosophy, yoga and meditation to the West, He spent a considerable amount of time meditating and taught a philosophy of traditional meditation and selfless service. In 1893 he was invited to speak at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where he called for tolerance and the end of religious fanaticism. He spoke for freedom for Indian women and an end to the worst of the caste system, His books on the four yogas (Raja, | Karma, Bhakti and Jnana) remain very influential. His letters were of great literary and spiritual value and he was also considered an outstanding singer and poet. 4 Read the texts again. Who: 1 lived the longest? 2 lived the earliest in history? 3 covered the greatest variety of topics in his writings? 4 had his works studied at tertiary level in Europe? 5. gavea talk asking for acceptance of all religions? 5 1 Work with a partner and discuss the questions. Which of the people in the texts did you find the most interesting? Why? 2 Who, in your opinion, istvas the most important thinker in your country? Sir Isaac Newton was a brilliant physicist and mathematician who invented calculus and formulated the laws of gravity, force and motion, Newton's First Law of ‘Motion stated that the natural state of an object is to remain at rest if it is at rest and to.continue to move if itis already moving. His concept of inertia stated that an object with a large amount of inertia will have a large mass and an object with a small amount of inertia will have a small mass. Modern physics really started with Newton because he produced the first fundamental theory of mechanics and gravitation in his book Principia Mathematica. He modestly said, ‘If [have seen further than others, itis by standing upon the shoulders of giants.’ He was born in 1642 in England and died in 1727. Ibn Sina, often known by his Latin name of Avicenna, was a physician and the most famous of the philosopher-scientists of Islam. He was born in, Uzbekistan in 980 and died in 1037. He wrote around 450 works on a wide range of subjects, including philosophy, astronomy, psychology, Islamic theology mathematics and poetry. He was the greatest writer of medicine in the Middle Ages and his book The Canon of Medicine was required reading throughout European universities until the seventeenth century. He was a pioneer in the area of mental health, believing that a significant proportion of illnesses were psycHosomatic. ‘The Avicenna Directories, a global database of medical schools and health institutions, was named after Ibn Sind, demonstrating his lasting influence on the development of medicine and health sciences in the East and the WestOCABULARY RESSIONS OF QUANTITY © Look at the expressions of quantity in the box. Then Sod more expressions in the texts. bunch of a couple of a great deal of arge quantity ofa pairof slight majority of a tiny proportion of 7 Choose the correct words to complete the sentences. Newton's work attracted a considerable amount of / 2 slight majority of criticism, bn Sina learnt 2 great deal of/ a couple of Arab poetry. Alchemical books made up a pair of / a significant oroportion of Newton’ personal library. 4 Vivekananda travelled widely in the USA lecturing on a wide range of /@ tiny proportion of subjects. 5 The Confucius Institute offers a wide variety of f one of language programmes ISTENING. 8a [EEE Listen to a radio programme about the ideas ‘vo more great thinkers, Keynes and Aristotle, and ote down the two most interesting things about them. Evaluating a summary Listen to the first part * the programme again and choose the best summary what Professor Kotov sai A. Professor Kotow thinks itis time fo re-evaluate soe work of economist John Maynard Keynes in se difficult economic days, when he would nove advocated more government spending on construction and transportto help the economy grow. Professor Kotov said that John Maynard Keynes thought governments should spend more in e+ economic downturn in order to stimvlate the economy. He also said that Keynes’ ideas were out of Zashion, but now they are back. ‘8c EZ Listen to the second part of the programme seain and write your own summary (about 40 words) © what Dr Petrakis said. sRAMMAR, ANTIFIERS. 9 Look at the quantifiers in bold in Audio script 7:3 on sage 172 and write them in the correct place in the table. Then add as many other quantifiers as you can think of. + uncountable noun, singular noun | + plural noun Language reference and extra practice, pages 138-139 GREAT THINKERS 10 Answer the questions. 1. Read these sentences. How does of the before a plural or uncountable noun change the meaning? I need! some information. | need some of the information, 2 What is the difference between a every, all, each? b tela title, few, a few? 3 What is the difference between these statements? a She had seen neither Aristotle nor Plato at Plato's academy. b_ She had not seen either Aristotle or Plato at Plato's academy. Whaat isthe difference between these statements? aI ike all classical music. b I don’t like some classical music. © I don’t like any classical music. 11 Complete the text with quantifiers. Sometimes more than one answer is possible, Nearly © of the problems of philosophy were defined by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. However, Aristotle is known for being one of the * figures in history who studied almost * subject possible at the time. He wrote * texts on the sciences and the arts. He also wrote? texts on ethics, the major cone being Nichomachean Ethics. His most famous work was* Nichomachean Ethics or Politics. In Politics, Aristotle says: ‘Democracy is when those who do not own” property, but are poor, have authority in the system of government. men arerich, but? __are free. Democracy is when 1©__ free citizen has authority. itis democracy when the citizens can deliberate about everything.” Very ® Information exists about what Aristotle looked like, but he was known to be a kind-hearted man devoted to his family and his friends. He liked to spend aa of time walking with his students discussing philosophical problems, SPEAKING 12 Work in small groups. Take it in turns to give a short talk about one of the great thinkers you thought of in Exercise 1. (PRM Watch an interview with Mairi Ryan from the Royal Society of Arts, about their public events programme. Turn to page 152 for video activities. 69