MARIALICIA CASTILLO - SULI GIRALDO

1 Some people say that in our modern economy everything is for sale. Do you agree?
Why? / Why not?
Yes this is true, i agree because nowadays people pay for all and almost in any case people
do a favor , people only want to get money for all the things, even children nowadays
don’t do favor because they only want that their parents pay for those things.

2 Which of these things should people be allowed to buy? Why? / Why not?

 comfort in prison, e.g. a nicer prison cell : I don’t agree, if the person was bad , they dont
be allowed to get a comfort place in prison.

 better quality health care = i don’t agree, because all of us deserve the same quaity
health care, beacuse healthy is something that could have advanges to wealthy people.

 soldiers to fight wars : I don’t agree, for me that is something so bad because people are
not products

 private education: I don’t agree, education should be free for all people and like that not
only wealthy people could get education , also normal people could get a Good education.

 the privilege to avoid queues with VIP tickets : I agree , its a Good way for go faster in an
event.

3 Should children be given monetary incentives to read more books? What might be the
positive or negative consequences of this?
In my opinion if parents pay to children for read books, children Will read more and more
books but only for the money , but not because they love Reading everyday, it could be a
Good way for mativate them but this wont be all time , becuase what could happen if
parents stop to pay to them? The majority Will stop to read.

4 What might be the positive and negative outcomes of ‘marketizing’, or putting a price
on, everything?
Marketizing things could get a Good impact but only if people do a strategy for this like
giving a considerate Price for each thing but only to adult people not children , but i think
it could get more negative impact because it means that people wont do more favors …
always people Will do things because they want to get some money for that even
between Friends and family , and for me that isn’t a Good way of living.
2 Read this summary of Michael Sandel’s TED Talk, Why we shouldn’t trust markets with
our civic life. Match the words and phrases in bold with their definitions (1–8).

Michael Sandel argues that we shouldn’t trust the market economy to rule our civic lives.
He explains that in the modern world almost everything is up for sale, and this can lead to
inequality. You can pay people to wait in line for you to speak to politicians, for example,
which wealthy lobbyists frequently do. This type of marketization might also change
people’s social values and practices. What effect would providing cash incentives to
children for reading books have on their attitudes to reading, for instance? Sandel believes
that markets are not inert, and that they can have a corrosive effect on society

1 a situation where some people have more money, power or influence than others =
inequality

2 unable to move or change: inert

3 can be bought: is up for sale

4 relating to public and social activities or responsibilities: civic

5 negative impact: corrosive effect

6 money given to people to encourage them to do something: cash incentives

7 people or organizations that represent specific areas of business or society and try to
influence politicians: lobbyists

8 a system where prices depend on competition between private businesses: the market
economy

3.Do you agree with the main message of the TED Talk as shown in the summary in
Exercise 2? Why? / Why not?

He is rigth, nowadays there is inequality everywhere, because sometimes wealthy people

think that they can get wahatever and not wealthy people wont get the same
opportunities in life as them, and because cash incentives nowadays children don’t want
to do a favor they only want to get money of all.
4.Watch Michael Sandel’s talk on TED.com. Choose the correct option to complete the
sentences according to the speaker. Sometimes more than one answer is correct.

1 If you have enough money in a Californian jail, you can

a get better meals

b pay for a better prison cell
c leave jail sooner

2 You can avoid standing in lines for a long time if you .

a get a VIP ticket

b pay somebody to stay in a line for you
c get up early

3 We should worry about becoming a market society because .

a poverty will increase

b inequality will increase
c important social values and practices will change

4 According to experiments, the effects of cash incentives for reading are .

a children read more books

b children read longer books
c children get better grades

5 Market mechanisms and cash incentives can .

a undermine non-material values

b improve people’s lives
c change how we perceive social practices

6 One of the most worrying effects of a market society is that .

a everything is up for sale
b it destroys the sense of togetherness
c the rich and poor will live in different places

7 The best summary of the talk is: .

a the market economy can have several negative effects on civic life
b everything is up for sale now
c inequality is increasing
6.Watch the TED Talk from 9.40−11.15 again. Complete the extract. Use one word in each
space.

7. Complete the comment that a viewer wrote with these words and phrases. There are
two words you do not need.