‫מטלת מנחה )ממ"ן( ‪11‬‬

‫)ממ"ן חובה(‬
‫הקורס‪ :‬אנגלית לצרכים אקדמיים‪ -‬מתקדמים א' )‪(61133‬‬

‫חומר הלימוד למטלה‪ :‬חוברת עבודה ‪(Part 1) WORKBOOK‬‬

‫משקל המטלה‪6% :‬‬ ‫מספר השאלות‪12 :‬‬

‫מועד אחרון להגשה‪ :‬ראה לו"ז‬ ‫סמסטר‪2021 :‬ג‬

‫‪1‬‬
Differences between the sexes

The mismeasure of women

Aug 3rd 2006
From The Economist print edition

Investigation into differences between the way men and women think
and behave reveals surprising findings, as new studies show that the
differences between men and women are negligible. Apparently, men
and women are different, but not that different.

1. IN THE 1970s it became fashionable to give dolls to baby boys and toy
cars to baby girls. The idea was that differences in behaviour between the
sexes were solely the result of a child's education: culture turned women into
cooks, dressmakers and chatterboxes, and men into builders, football players
and silent types. Switching toys would put an end to these sexual
differences. Today, it is clear why it did not. When boys and girls are born,
they are already different, and they favor different toys from the beginning.

2. That boys and girls — and men and women — are programmed by
evolution to behave differently from one another is now widely accepted. But
there is an intensive debate about which of the differences between the
sexes are “biological” or "innate", i.e. the result of evolution, and which of
the differences are “cultural” or "environmental" and might more easily be
altered by changed circumstances.

3. The sensitivity of this issue was shown last year by a fierce debate at
Harvard University. Larry Summers, who was Harvard's president, caused a
storm when he suggested that innate ability could be an important reason
why there were so few women in the top positions in mathematics,
engineering and physics.

2
4. Such ideas are unacceptable to some people. But biological explanations
of human behavior are now back in fashion. Their success has encouraged
discussion about why some differences between the sexes might be innate.
And new brain scanning techniques have enabled researchers to examine the
brain while it is working, showing that male and female brains do, at one
level, operate differently. The results, however, do not always support past
stereotypes about differences between the sexes. In the rest of this article we
will discuss recent research on male-female differences and the light it sheds
on views such as those of Dr. Summers.

Baby Blues and Pinks: From the Beginning

5. In the past, it was assumed that a female was simply a male with
hormones, says Tracey Shors, a professor of neuroscience at Rutgers
University. The truth is the exact opposite. We all start with a female brain.
Until the eighth week of pregnancy, every human brain looks female. As a
result of hormone called testosterone, the brain, like the rest of the human
body, becomes male.

6. This hormone creates a brain that generates typically boyish behavior,

such as a liking for rough play. Behavioural differences appear early. For
example, a one-day-old girl will look far longer at a face than at a turning
mechanical mobile; a boy will prefer the mobile. Two types of research
suggest that it is testosterone exposure which causes such preferences.
Several research studies have shown that girls with a genetic disorder which
exposes them to abnormally high prenatal levels of testosterone often
develop boyish patterns of play. With boys, Simon Baron-Cohen and
Svetlana Lutchmaya, two researchers at Cambridge University, found that
boys exposed to relatively high levels of testosterone in the womb looked
less often at their mothers' faces than those exposed to lower levels.

7. Within a year of birth, boys and girls also prefer different toys. Boys
prefer cars, balls and guns. Girls prefer dolls and tea sets. Many have pointed
towards a socio-psychological explanation for this behavior. Evidence from
other animals, however, suggests that human children might be naturally
predisposed to prefer toys that helped them adapt to their traditional sex
roles throughout evolution. Several years ago, Melissa Hines, of City
University in London, and Gerianne Alexander, of Texas A&M University, gave
some monkeys a selection of toys, including dolls, pans, balls and cars. Male
monkeys spent more time with the cars and balls. Females played far longer
with the dolls. This tends to point to an evolutionary explanation for behavior
rather than a socio-psychological one.

8. The theory that explains the monkeys' behavior — and the similar innate
preferences of human children — is that the toys preferred by young females

3
are objects that offer opportunities for expressing nurturing behaviour,
something that will be useful to them later in life. Young males, monkey or
human, prefer toys that can be used actively or moved in space, and which
provide more opportunities for rough play.

Just Behave: Brain Structure and Behavior

9. Differences in behaviour between the sexes must, in some way, be

reflections of systematic differences between the brains of males and
females. Such differences certainly exist, but reaching conclusions based on
them is not as easy as it may appear.

10. For a start, men's brains are about 9% larger than those of women.
That used to be cited as evidence of men's supposedly greater intelligence.
Actually, the difference is largely (and probably completely) explained by the
fact that men are bigger than women.

11. In recent years, more detailed examination has refined the picture.
Female brains have a higher percentage of grey matter (which is how the
central bodies of nerve cells look), and thus a lower percentage of white
matter (which is how the long, thin threads that connect nerve cells together
look), than male brains. That, plus the fact that in some regions of the
female brain, nerve cells are packed more densely than in men, means that
the number of nerve cells in male and female brains may be similar.

12. Strangely, though, the main connection between the two sides of the
brain, which is known as the corpus callosum and is made of white matter, is
proportionately smaller in men than women. This may explain why men use
only one side of the brain to process some problems for which women
employ both sides.

13. It also seems that the sexes carry out IQ tests in different ways. In one
example, where men and women performed equally well in a word test, brain
scanning showed that women used areas on both the right and the left sides
of the brain to accomplish the task. Men, by contrast, used only areas on the
left side. More generally, men seem to rely more on their grey matter for
their IQ, whereas women rely more on their white matter. Although clear
differences in brain structure, size and wiring exist, no differences in
intelligence, as measured by IQ tests, have been found.

14. These examples show how tricky it is to find a link between behavior
and differences in brain structure and brain activity. And even if a connection
to brain structure is found, that does not mean it is innate. Most of these
studies are done on adults, so it is not clear when differences start to arise.
It has been shown that the brain can change, even in adulthood. In the
hippocampus, an area of the brain which is involved in spatial learning, new
nerve cells can be born in an adult and hormones influence their birth and
survival. Dr Shors says that her work has shown that the female brain, at
4
least, is very plastic, changing dramatically during life in response to
pregnancy and menopause as well as puberty.

15. What about psychological differences between the sexes? Thousands of

studies have looked at personality, social behaviour, memory and abilities in
particular fields. For example, men are said to be more aggressive and better
at mathematics, while women are more emotional and have better verbal
skills.

16. There are a number of problems with these studies. One, according to
Dr Hines, is that scientists are often interested in identifying and reporting
differences, so that research which shows no differences is likely to get lost.
Another is that because differences between the sexes are so often
popularized and exaggerated in the popular media, people tend to pay them
disproportionate attention.

17. For example, although it is commonly believed that there are reliable
differences between the verbal abilities of males and females, Dr Hines
suggests this is not exactly correct. She says that the results of hundreds of
tests of vocabulary and reading comprehension show there is almost no
difference between the sexes. The only aspect of verbal ability that is known
to show a sex difference in adults is verbal fluency (the ability to produce
words rapidly). For example, when asked to list as many words as possible
that start with a particular letter, women usually find more words than men.
Furthermore, even when there are differences in ability between the sexes,
research suggests that these differences are often smaller than people
generally believe.

Storm in a D Cup: Research and Statistics

18. Janet Hyde of the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided to

investigate just how different men and women are. She collected all the
important findings on differences between the sexes. Most of the findings she
looked at referred to differences that were thought to be reliable
(mathematical performance, verbal ability and aggressive behavior, in
particular), so she feels her results were surprising. Of the 124 behavioral
variables she looked at, showed zero difference and in a further 48% of
cases, differences were small. In other words, only 22% of reported
behavioral differences between the sexes are worth noticing.

19. The largest gaps were, not surprisingly, in physical attributes such as
throwing velocity and throwing distance These closely reflect the difference in
height between men and women.

20. Not surprisingly, on average men were physically more aggressive (d

=0.6). But in this case, other work shows the danger of jumping too rapidly
to a conclusion. A study done in 1994 hints that if women think nobody is

5
watching and judging them, and there are no physical consequences, they
might be more aggressive than men.

Boys versus girls

Differences between the sexes on a range of variables
Men better than women d *
Mental rotation +0.73
Physical aggression +0.60
Mathematical problem solving[t] +0.32

No significant difference
Mathematical problem solving[T] -0.02
Vocabulary -0.02
Reading comprehension -0.03

Women better than men

Smiling -0.40
Spelling[A] -0.45
Indirect aggression -0.74 to +0.05

* d is a statistical measure of the difference between two groups.

Positive values favor men, negative values women

[t] Age 19-25

[T] Age 11-14
[A] Adolescents
Source: Janet Hyde

21. In this study, participants played a video game in which they defended
themselves from attackers, and the number of bombs they dropped was a
measure of aggression. When participants thought they were known to the
experimenter and were having their performance assessed, men dropped
more bombs than women did. But when those same participants were given
the impression that they were anonymous, women became the more
enthusiastic bombers.

22. Violent or not, women have as many angry thoughts as men, if not
more. In a study carried out in 2004, Robin Simon, of Florida State
University, and Leda Nath, of the University of Wisconsin, found no difference
between the sexes in the reported frequency of incidents of feeling angry
over a period of time. However, women tended to report anger that was
more intense and prolonged.

6
23. A similar result on the greater intensity of female anger was reported
earlier this year by Nicole Hess, of the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, and
Edward Hagen, of the same city's Humboldt University. Dr Hess and Dr
Hagen, however, took the matter one stage further by asking their
participants what they wanted to do about it.

24. The researchers read to the participants, who were undergraduate

students, an “aggression-provoking scenario”. They were told they had just
overheard a physically smaller classmate of the same sex making false and
serious attacks on their reputation to a teacher. Once again, the women were
angrier than the men. The real difference between the sexes, though, was in
the way they planned to take revenge. Women usually said that they would
take revenge with gossip. Men were more evenly divided, with about half
wanting to hit the lying classmate.

Does it Add Up? Maths and More

25. Another behavioural difference that has been closely investigated is in

mathematics, especially since Dr. Summers' controversial comments. Until
recently, it was believed that males outperformed females in mathematics at
all ages. Today, that perception has changed, and it appears that males and
females of any age are equally good at computation and at understanding
mathematical concepts. However, after their teenage years, men are better
at problem solving than women are. Males also have greater spatial 1 abilities
than females. If asked to imagine rotating a three-dimensional object, a skill
useful in engineering, the difference is quite large.

26. Men do not excel in all spatial tasks, including navigation. Again
contrary to popular myth, men and women are equally good at navigating.
But this is another example of a task in which the sexes take different paths
to the same destination. Women tend to rely on remembering landmarks,
whereas men rely on their geometric skills to estimate direction and
distance.

27. Besides Dr. Summer's ideas, there have been other suggestions to
explain the lack of women professors of maths and science. One is that even
if there is little or no difference in average mathematical ability, there might
be differences in the variation around this average, with more men found in
the extremes and fewer in the middle. In other words, among males there
are more idiots and more geniuses. One study of IQ, covering everyone born
in Scotland in 1932, supports this idea. It showed that there were more
women in the middle of the IQ distribution, but more men at both of the
extremes.

1
Spatial- ‫( מרחבי‬not to be confused with: special)
7
28. The question raised by Dr Summers does get to the heart of the matter.
Over the past 50 years, women have made huge progress into
academia and within it. Slowly, they reached top positions in discipline after
discipline. But some parts of academia have remained harder to reach than
others. The question remains: is innate, unchangeable ability the reason (or
at least one reason) for the absence of women in science, mathematics and
engineering?

What Does it All Mean?

29. Ability may indeed be innate. But that does not mean it is
unchangeable. Ability can be acquired through training in both sexes. And
such training works. The evidence shows clearly that women have been
mismeasured for decades. Biology may predispose, but even in the world of
math and science, it is not necessarily destiny.

Adapted text

THE END

8
 .‫ מחקו שורות ריקות‬,‫ לעבודה על מחשב‬:‫סטודנטים יקרים‬

The Mismeasure of Women

Pre-reading:
Eye-catching features 1

1a. According to the eye-catching features, the author thinks that the differences
between men and women…

Choose one.
___ are significant. ___are not significant.

b. Do you think there are significant differences between the way men and
women think and behave?

Write in your own words in English.

Start by stating your opinion.

Then give an example.

Yes, I think that / No, I don’t think that _______________________________

_______________________________________________________________.
For example, ____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

(4 + 6= 10 points)

1
Eye-catching features: title, sentence under the title, pictures, section headings, etc.
9
Close Reading

Introduction (Paragraphs 1 – 4):

2. Why do boys and girls behave differently?

a. What was the answer to this question in the past?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

b. What is the answer according to current thinking?

____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
(8 points)

3. Quote one sentence from the Introduction, which states the author’s purpose
in this text.
____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
(6 points)

Baby blues and pinks: From the Beginning (paragraphs 5-8):

4. What biological condition allows the brain to remain female?

Answer in your own words.
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
(6 points)

10
5a. In this section, the writer gives examples to show differences between the
sexes.
Who does he compare in his examples?

(The first one is done below.)

1. one day old girls__ and one day old boys

2. _______________ and ______________
3. _______________ and ______________

b. Which 2 possible reasons are given for these differences?

a. psychological
b. physiological
c. social
d. evolutionary
(8+ 4= 12 points)

Just Behave: Brain Structure and Behavior (paragraphs 9 – 17):

6a. Does the fact that men's brains are larger than women's show that men are
smarter than woman?

Choose one. ___ Yes ____ No

b. In addition to brain size, write one other difference between men's and
women's brains.

Complete the sentence.

Men_________________________________________________________,
while women _________________________________________________.

11
c. Does this difference show that men are smarter than women?

Choose one. ___ Yes ____ No

Explain.
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
(2+4+6= 12 points)

Storm in a D Cup: Research and Statistics (paragraphs 18 – 24):

7. The purpose of this section (paragraphs 18-24) is to review research that

shows that the differences between men and women ______ (are/ are not)
large.

Give an example to support your choice above.

_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
(7 points)

Does it Add Up? Maths and More (paragraphs 25 – 29):

8. Read the title of this section.

Why do you think the writer chose math to compare between men and
women?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
(6 points)

12
9. Fill in the table according to the text.

Who is better?
Topic of comparison Check () one.
Men Women Same
Understanding mathematical concepts
Spatial abilities
Navigating

(6 points)

Post Reading:

Watch the following video on YouTube:

https://www.france24.com/en/20151211-51-percent-maths-women-
discrimination-africa-digital-revolution

Watch from 0:44-4:16. Questions 10-12 are based on this part of the video.

10a. In what area are men and women compared in the video?

__________________________

b. According to the video, why do men and women perform differently in this
area?
Explain.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
(4+6 = 10 points)

13
11. Did the reason for the differences surprise you?
Explain why or why not.
Start by stating your opinion.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
(7 points)

12. Compare and contrast the text “The Mismeasure of Women” and the
YouTube video.

There are many possible answers!

Write in your own words in English.

Both the text and the video _____________________________________

____________________________________________________________.
However, the text _____________________________________________
___________________________________________________________,
while the video _______________________________________________
____________________________________________________________.

(10 points)

THE END

14
 ‫מטלת מנחה )ממ"ן( ‪12‬‬
‫)ממ"ן חובה(‬
‫הקורס‪ :‬אנגלית לצרכים אקדמיים‪ -‬מתקדמים א' )‪(61133‬‬

‫חומר הלימוד למטלה‪ :‬חוברת עבודה ‪(Part 2) WORKBOOK‬‬

‫משקל המטלה‪%6 :‬‬ ‫מספר השאלות‪12 :‬‬

‫מועד אחרון להגשה‪ :‬ראה לו"ז‬ ‫סמסטר‪2021 :‬ג‬

‫‪15‬‬
New Scientist, 02624079, 7/20/2002, Vol. 175, Issue 2352 (Adapted text)

By Fred Pearce

MAMMA MIA

Italian women are terrifying demographers. If other women

around the world copy their behavior, we could be faced with a
population crash. Fred Pearce is already worried

1. THE baby boom seems to be turning to baby bust 1. Not just in the rich world
but increasingly in poor countries too. Within 50 years, the world's population could
be in free fall.

2. To see what the future may hold, take a look at Italy, where Isabella, Clara
and Bianca are less likely to be making babies than young women anywhere else
in Europe. Ironically, fertility rates are dropping to super-low levels in the country
that is home to the Catholic Church, an institution known for its opposition to
artificial birth control. At just 1.2 children born to each Italian woman, the rate is
about half the figure needed to keep the population at a stable level. It's a similar
picture, if a little less extreme, across the world.

3. A future decline in the world's population sounds like a good thing. Certainly,
it will reduce the pressures on global natural resources. But a world of falling
population will be very different from the one we know now: a much older world,
and perhaps a less innovative, more conservative one. It will be a world in which
labor is in increasingly short supply and the richest countries compete for
immigrants who can supply it, instead of sending them away.

4. And the relationship between the sexes will become a serious political issue,
with countries wanting to impose measures that encourage women to become
mothers. Indeed, to prevent a sharp demographic decline, some countries may
decide to take ever more radical steps, with serious implications for the personal
liberties of us all.

5. These latest developments are totally unexpected. Ever since the 1970s,
forecasters have been frightening us with population figures which wildly exceeded
predictions for resources such as food, water and land, while triggering global
warming and even more pollution.

1
baby boom: between 1946-1964 when birth rates were the highest ever in world history…baby
boomer: someone born in 1946-1964 ….baby bust: a sharp fall in the number of babies born.

16
6. And so far, their predictions have come true. During the 20th century, the
world's population increased almost fourfold, from 1.6 to 6 billion. The baby boom,
which peaked in the 1950s, has not yet ended. But in the background, fertility has
been falling fast. In 1950, worldwide the average woman had five children.
Today she has just 2.7, and the continued collapse of fertility has become the
dominant demographic feature of the 21st century.

7. Demographers have assumed that during this century most of the world's
women would settle down in a conventional Western-style nuclear family with
mother, father and two children. That would ensure a stable world population by
2100 of perhaps 10 billion. But nobody told women about the plan, and there is
now a growing belief that Italy is leading the way to a future of fertility rates so low
as to cause a worldwide population crash.

8. Keeping population levels stable requires 2.1 children per woman; the extra
0.1 compensates for girls who do not live long enough to have families. With only
1.2 babies per woman, Italy's population is clearly on the way to a steep decline.
But it's not alone. Its southern European neighbors, Spain and Greece, have
similar fertility rates, as do the Czech Republic and former Soviet states such as
Russia and Armenia. The amazing bottom line is that new UN population forecasts
are expected to conclude that within two decades 80% of the world's women will
be having two children or fewer.

9. So why is the world still not aware of this coming demographic shift? It's mostly
because the "baby boomers" (the largest generation ever in history) have
themselves become parents, bringing many more babies into the world, even with

17
their much-reduced fertility rates. This, combined with rising life expectancy, is
keeping Europe's population stable, and boosting that of the world as a whole by
around 80 million a year. But by the time the 20th-century baby boomers start to
die off, it will be hard to prevent a population crash. It is now almost certain that
the world's population will start to diminish sometime soon.

"The key questions are why women are choosing to have fewer children
and how far their decreasing desire for motherhood... will go"

Kids in cities are a liability

10. The key questions are why women are choosing to have fewer children, and
how far their decreasing desire for motherhood will go. Most obviously, the
declining death rate, particularly among children, due to better health and medical
services, has meant people do not feel they need to have so many children. Other
factors have accelerated the process. Urbanization is certainly one. On a farm,
young children are an asset, caring for the animals and helping with the work. In
cities it's a different story: kids are more likely to be a responsibility — in purely
economic terms, at least. When they are young, they need full-time care, and when
they are older they need educating to get a job.

11. On top of that, cultural changes have increasingly liberated women from the
home and child-rearing. In poor countries with a traditional patriarchal society, the
spread of TV has opened many women's eyes to a whole new world, and modern
birth control methods have allowed them to turn their dreams into reality. “Getting
married and having children are simply not as important as they used to be,” says
Tim Dyson of the London School of Economics.

12. Today, more than 60 countries have fertility rates below 2.1 children per
woman. The club now includes much of the Caribbean, Japan, Korea and China,
the world's most populous nation. This year Thailand, Sri Lanka and Iran are likely
to join. In view of the “enormous implications” for the future of humanity, the UN
population division's director Joseph Chamie organized a conference of experts in
New York in March this year to analyze the phenomenon. Scientists from many
countries, including India, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey, reported that they
expected their own national fertility rates to fall dramatically within 20 years.

18
 Global Population Forecasts Fertility Rates In Key Countries

No forced contraception

13. Few of these countries, except for China, have forced contraception on their
populations. Rather the reverse. For example, Brazil has no state family planning
program because of opposition from the Catholic Church. Yet, millions of Brazilian
women have attended sterilization clinics, and fertility has decreased by 50% in 20
years to today's 2.3.

14. The case of Iran is even more remarkable. A few years ago, the religious
mullahs ruling the country went to a UN population conference in Cairo and
declared opposition to cutting birth rates. But back home, Iranian women were
taking their own decisions and fertility rates crashed from 5.5 children per woman
in 1988 to just 2.2 in 2000.

15. Fertility is decreasing even in poor countries. In Bangladesh, one of poorest

nations in the world, the girls are among the least educated and marry younger
than most. Yet they give birth to just 3.3 children, half the number their mothers
had. In Vietnam, which is poorer still, women halved their fertility to 2.3 children in
the decade to the mid-1990s.

16. Rich or poor, socialist or capitalist, Muslim or Catholic, with tough family
planning policies or none, most countries tell the same story: women are voting
with their wombs. According to two recent major studies, the only common factor
uniting nations with fast-falling fertility is the availability of cheap contraceptives.

19
17. Dyson and other demographers have a new theory for what is happening,
“cultural diffusion”. Not having children has become a statement of modernity and
emancipation, and women are unlikely to give up their new freedoms. They are
also taking over from their brothers and husbands the role of shaping their
societies. “Go to rural India,” says Dyson, “and you find that women are frustrated
with the men, who seem to be going nowhere. It is the women who are managing
the farms. It is the women who are getting jobs and taking charge. They don't have
time to have children any more.”

18. Where is this all leading? Jack Caldwell of the Australian National University
in Canberra and a leading demographer is convinced that “Italy is the future”. Its
super-low fertility arises from female emancipation he says. Isabella and her
friends are educated as well as or better than their male partners. They can have
successful careers. The last thing they want is to be like their mothers, staying at
home rearing children.

19. French demographer Jean-Claude Chesnais of the National Institute for

Demographic Studies in Paris goes further. With the state providing little childcare,
and most men unlikely to help in looking after their children, “the obstacles to
motherhood in countries like Italy are enormous and the economic sacrifices made
by mothers are viewed as unacceptable”.

20. Caldwell's colleague at the Australian National University, Peter McDonald,

claims that the trends in Italy and Southern Europe are a result of a lack of balance
as nations progress towards gender equality: women are getting the freedoms that
arise from better education and employment, but much less freedom in their
relations with their men or in terms of state help for the family. Result: a childbirth
strike.

21. Not all of Europe is quite like Italy, however. In Sweden, for instance, Astrid
and her friends feel more able to have a family than Isabella in Italy. They have an
average of 1.6 children. That's not enough to maintain their country's population in
the long term, but neither is it a demographic crash. Indeed, most of northern
Europe (including Norway, Britain and Finland) has maintained higher fertility rates
than Italy and Southern Europe.

22. Why is Astrid in Sweden happier to make babies than Isabella in Italy? She
is just as interested in pursuing a career. The difference is that she has more
chance of combining a career with motherhood. Her partner is likely to be a better
help at home, and the Swedish government is better at helping couples cope with
family and work. About half the jobs held by Swedish women are part-time,
crèches 2 are everywhere and paid parental leave lasts for a year. All this is
unheard of in Italy, where only 12 per cent of employed women have part-time
jobs.

2
creche: ‫פעוטון‬

20
 23. So will the rest of the world follow the Swedish or the Italian model? Caldwell
thinks the signs are clear: “The Italian patriarchal model is far more common in the
world than the Swedish model of more helpful husbands.”

24. Industrialized countries are already complaining about the effects of falling
fertility. An ageing population is putting pressure on social services and pensions.
In the next few years they will start to see their populations falling. Japan expects
its population to peak in the next decade and then fall by 14 per cent, or almost 20
million people, by 2050. Germany expects a similar drop. Italy and Hungary may
lose 25 per cent, and Russia could lose a third by then.

"If today's low fertility rates continue, then as the current baby boomers die,
things will get significantly worse"

25. If today's low fertility rates continue, then as the current baby boomers die,
things will get significantly worse. If adults continue to produce only about half the
number of children needed to replace them, McDonald calculates that the
population of Italy is set to crash from 56 million now to just 8 million by 2100.
Likewise Spain would lose 85 per cent of its population within the same time frame
and Germany 83 per cent.

26. This year, Chamie and his UN colleagues have been recalculating their
population predictions on the assumption that the world will move towards an
average of 1.85 children per woman. Much depends on how long this move takes,
but according to one of his projections it would result in a world population
peaking at about 7.5 billion around 2050. It would then begin to crash. By 2150
there would be 5.3 billion people on the planet. With lower future fertility levels the
result is an even more drastic drop. If women settled for a Swedish-style fertility
level of 1.6 children, we would be down to 3.2 billion by 2150 — about half today's
population. Chamie has not yet dared calculate the effect of universal Italian-style
fertility.

27. Of course, it may never happen. In some countries, fertility has leveled out
at over the required 2.1 children per woman. Argentina and Uruguay, for example,
have been stuck at between 2.5 and 3 children per woman for 50 years. Israel and
Malaysia stayed at around 3 in the 1990s. In many African countries fertility still
remains high. And some Muslim states such as Afghanistan (6.9), Saudi Arabia
(6.1) and Pakistan (5.5) have also resisted the trend.

21
28. Demographers also suspect that if the downward fertility trend continues for
much longer, then deep collective instincts of survival could start appearing.
Politicians will become fearful of the social consequences of declining populations
such as the growing burden of supporting the elderly, and an increasing need to
find immigrants to boost the labor force.

29. Such changes will happen in Europe first. “There seems little question that
pro-natalist 3* policies will become a central part of the political agenda in the near
future,” says McDonald. The authoritarian approach would be to try to cut women
out of the workforce and keep them at home, to ban abortions, and restrict access
to family planning services. But that is unlikely to work, says Dyson. Women
wouldn't accept it.

30. Instead, a new agenda is needed, one that is less about creating new
freedoms for women and more about instilling new responsibilities in men and the
state. As Dyson puts it, in most of the world today, fertility rates are dropping
because women have decided they want to become more like men – a decision
that leaves little room for babies. To change that, men too must take a decision
and start to become more like women. The future of humanity could depend on it.

THE END

3
pro-natalist: which encourage women to have children

22
 .‫ מחקו שורות ריקות‬,‫ לעבודה על מחשב‬:‫סטודנטים יקרים‬

MAMMA MIA

Pre-Reading:

1a. Read the eye-catching features (title, subtitles, graphs, enlarged quotes,
etc...) and paragraph 1.
What problem will be discussed in this text?
Write in your own words in English.
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

b. Support your answer with information from the graphs.

____________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
(8 points)

CLOSE READING
Section 1: Introduction (paragraphs 1 – 9):

2. What is paradoxical about the situation in Italy?

On the one hand:

_________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
on the other hand
_________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
(8 points)

23
3. What might happen if the world became less populated?
List four possible negative consequences.
1._________________________________________________________

2._________________________________________________________

3._________________________________________________________

4._________________________________________________________

(8 points)

4. The main idea of paragraphs 5-9 is

a. World population is on the rise, from 1.6 to 6 billion.

b. Fertility rates are dropping. However, we still do not feel the implications.
c. Researchers are afraid that resources like food and water will not be
enough for world population.

(7 points)

Section 2: Kids in Cities Are a Liability (par. 10-12)

5. Why is fertility dropping in today's world? List four reasons.

`
1._________________________________________________________

2._________________________________________________________

3._________________________________________________________

4._________________________________________________________
(8 points)

24
Section 3: No Forced Contraception (paragraphs 13 – end)

Paragraphs 13-23:

6. From paragraph 16:

"Rich or poor, socialist or capitalist, Muslim or Catholic, with tough family
planning policies or none, most countries tell the same story: women are
voting with their wombs."

a. Name one country for each of the following:

(Choose 3.)

a poor country __________________

a socialist country _________________
a Muslim country _________________
a Catholic country _______________
a country with tough family planning policies ____________________

b. What does the writer mean by "women are voting with their wombs"?

____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________
(6+8 =14 points)

7. The author mentions several demographers (par. 17-20) who try to explain
dropping fertility rates.

Choose one demographer: _________________

What is this demographer's explanation?

_____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________
(6 points)

25
8. This section compares the Italian model of a family and the Swedish model.

Which model of a family is more likely to have more children, the Italian or
Swedish? _____________________________

Explain why, according to the text. Use your own words.

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

(8 points)

Paragraphs 24 – 30:

9. "Chamie has not yet dared calculate the effect of universal Italian-style
Fertility." (par. 26)
Why does he not dare to do so?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

(8 points)

10. Israel (par. 27) is mentioned to support the idea that-

[Write in your own words. Do not mention statistics.]

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________
(8 points)

26
11. The writer presents some recommendations.
According to the writer, what needs to be done?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

Who needs to do it? _____________________________

(7 points)

POST- READING

12. In your opinion, are fertility rates in Israel increasing or decreasing?

Choose one.
Increasing ___ Decreasing ___ Not changing _____

From the whole text, choose one reason that may explain your choice.
Write in your own words in English.

The reason I chose from the text is _______________________________

___________________________________________________________.

My explanation is that _________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

(10 points)

The End

27
 ‫מטלת מנחה )ממ"ן( ‪13‬‬
‫הקורס‪ :‬אנגלית לצרכים אקדמיים‪ -‬מתקדמים א' )‪(61133‬‬

‫חומר הלימוד למטלה‪ :‬חוברת עבודה ‪(Part 3) WORKBOOK‬‬

‫משקל המטלה‪%6 :‬‬ ‫מספר השאלות‪12 :‬‬

‫מועד אחרון להגשה‪ :‬ראה לו"ז‬ ‫סמסטר‪2021 :‬ג‬

‫‪29‬‬
 Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

A new theory suggests ADHD 1 (Attention- Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

comes from a failure in self-control. This disorder may arise when the
brain does not develop properly, because of altered genes.

by Russell A. Barkley

1
ADHD – ‫הפרעת קשב וריכוז והיפראקטיביות‬

30
1. As I watched five-year-old Keith in my office, I could see why his parents
said he was having such a hard time in kindergarten. He jumped from chair to
chair, swinging his arms and legs, and then began to turn the lights on and
off, talking nonstop. When Keith found some toys, he played aimlessly with
them and seemed unable to entertain himself quietly. When I examined him
more fully, I diagnosed Keith with Attention- Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD).

2. Since the 1940s, psychiatrists have used various labels to describe children
who are hyperactive and extremely inattentive and impulsive. Such children
have been considered to have "minimal brain dysfunction," "hyperactive child
syndrome" and, most recently, "attention-deficit disorder." All these name
changes show how uncertain researchers have been about the underlying
causes of the disorder.

3. Within the past several years, however, those of us who study ADHD have
begun to clarify its symptoms and causes and have found that it may have a
genetic basis. Today's view of the cause of the condition is totally different from
that of just a few years ago. We are finding that ADHD is not simply a disorder
of attention, as had long been assumed. Rather, it results from a developmental
failure of the part of the brain that deals with inhibition and self-control. This loss
of self-control then impairs other important brain functions that are essential for
maintaining attention, including the ability to delay immediate pleasures for
later, greater gain.

4. ADHD involves two sets of symptoms: inattention and a combination of

hyperactive and impulsive behaviors [see Table 1]. Most children are more
active, distractible and impulsive than adults. Young children are naturally less
aware of time and give less importance to future events than to their more
immediate needs. Such behaviors are signs of a problem, however, when
children display them significantly more than other children of their age.

5. Boys are at least three times as likely as girls to develop the disorder,
possibly because boys are genetically more likely than girls to suffer from
disorders of the nervous system. The behavior patterns that characterize ADHD
usually arise between the ages of three and five but not always. Some children
do not develop symptoms until late childhood or even early adolescence. Why
their symptoms are delayed remains unclear.

6. Huge numbers of people are affected. Many studies estimate that

between 2 and 9.5 percent of all school-age children worldwide have ADHD;
researchers have identified it in every nation and culture they have studied.
What is more, the condition, which was once thought to disappear with age,
can continue into adulthood. For example, approximately two thirds of 158
children with ADHD that my colleagues and I evaluated in the1970s still had
the disorder in their twenties.

31
To help children (and adults) with ADHD, psychiatrists and psychologists must
better understand the causes of the disorder. Because researchers have
traditionally viewed ADHD as a problem of attention, some have suggested that
it stems from an inability of the brain to deal with too many sensory inputs, such
as sights and sounds. Other researchers have found that children with ADHD
are less capable of preparing motor responses to expected events and are
insensitive to feedback about mistakes. For example, in tests of reaction time,
children with ADHD were less prepared than other children to press a button
when they saw a warning light. They also did not slow down after making
mistakes in order to improve their accuracy.

The Search for a Cause

8. No one knows the direct causes of the difficulties experienced by children

with ADHD, although advances in neurological imaging* techniques and
genetics will probably soon clarify this issue.

9. Studies over the past decade have indicated which brain regions might
malfunction in patients with ADHD. In a 1996 study F. Xavier Castellanos,
Judith L. Rapoport and their colleagues at the National Institute of Mental
Health found that some of these regions are significantly smaller than normal
in children with ADHD.

10. These findings are interesting because the brain regions that are reduced
in size in children with ADHD are the ones that regulate attention. Some are
involved in controlling behavior, resisting distractions and developing an
awareness of self and time. Some help to switch off automatic responses to
allow more careful planning. Others may play a role in regulating motivation.

NORMAL BRAIN image outlines brain

regions (in yellow and red) that
regulate attention and that are reduced
in size in children with ADHD.

32
11. What causes these parts of the brain to be smaller in those with ADHD?
Many studies have suggested that mutations in several genes that are normally
very active might play a role. Most researchers now believe that ADHD is a
polygenic disorder — that is, that more than one gene contributes to it.

12. The idea that faulty genetics underlie ADHD came from studies of relatives
of children with the disorder. For instance, the siblings of children with ADHD
are between five and seven times more likely to develop the syndrome than
children from unaffected families. And the children of a parent who has ADHD
have up to a 50 percent chance of experiencing the same difficulties.

13. The most conclusive evidence that genetics can contribute to ADHD,
however, comes from studies of twins. Jacquelyn J. Gillis, then at the University
of Colorado, and her colleagues reported in 1992 that the ADHD risk of a child
whose identical twin has the disorder is between 11 and 18 times greater than
that of a nontwin sibling of a child with ADHD; between 55 and 92 percent of
the identical twins of children with ADHD eventually develop the condition.

14. One of the largest twin studies of ADHD was conducted by Helene Gjone
and Jon M. Sundet of the University of Oslo with Jim Stevenson of the
University of Southampton in England. It involved 526 identical twins, who
inherit exactly the same genes, and 389 fraternal twins, who, genetically
speaking, are like ordinary brothers and sisters. The team found that ADHD has
a heritability of nearly 80 percent, meaning that up to 80 percent of the
differences in attention, hyperactivity and impulsivity between people with
ADHD and those without the disorder can be explained by genetic factors.

15. Nongenetic factors that have been linked to ADHD include premature
birth, maternal alcohol and tobacco use, exposure to high levels of lead in early
childhood and some brain injuries. But even together, these factors can account
for only between 20 and 30 percent of ADHD cases.

16. Which genes are defective? Perhaps those that regulate the way in which
the brain uses dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical produced in the brain that
regulates the activity of neurons, particularly those involved in emotion and
movement.

17. In 1995 Edwin H. Cook and his colleagues at the University of Chicago
reported that children with ADHD were more likely than others to have a
variation in one of the dopamine genes. Similarly, in 1996 Gerald J. LaHoste of
the University of California at Irvine and his co-workers found that a variant of
another dopamine gene is more common among children with ADHD. But each
of these studies involved 40 or 50 children — a relatively small number — so
their findings are now being confirmed in larger studies.

33
From Genes to Behavior
18. How do the brain structure and genetic defects observed in children with
ADHD lead to the characteristic behaviors of the disorder? We may one day
find out that they are responsible for impaired behavioral inhibition and self-
control, which I have concluded are the central deficits in ADHD.

19. Self-control — or the ability to stop or delay motor responses to an event

— is essential for the performance of any task. As most children grow up, they
learn to use mental activities, known as executive functions, that help them
ignore distractions, remember goals and take the steps needed to reach them.
To achieve a goal in work or play, for instance, people need to be able to
remember their aim (use hindsight), remind themselves about what they need
to do to reach that goal (use forethought), control their emotions and motivate
themselves. These functions will be performed successfully only If the person
can prevent other thoughts and impulses from interfering.

20. In the early years, the executive functions are performed externally:
children might talk out loud to themselves while remembering a task
or solving a problem. As children mature, they internalize, or make private, such
executive functions, which prevents others from knowing their thoughts.
Children with ADHD, in contrast, lack the control needed to perform these tasks
quietly.

21. The executive functions can be grouped into four mental activities. One
is the operation of working memory — holding information in the mind while
working on a task, even if the original stimulus that provided the information is
gone. Such remembering is essential to timeliness and goal-directed behavior:
it provides the means for hindsight, forethought, preparation and the ability to
imitate complex, new behaviors of others — all of which are impaired in people
with ADHD.

22. The internalization of self-directed speech is another executive function.

Before the age of six, most children speak out loud to themselves frequently,
reminding themselves how to perform a task or to cope with a problem, for
example. ("Where did I put that book? Oh, I left it under the desk.") Such speech
usually disappears by age 10. Internalized, self-directed speech allows one
to reflect to oneself, to follow rules and instructions, to use self-questioning
as a form of problem solving and to make "meta-rules," which are the basis for
understanding the rules for using rules. Laura E. Berk and her colleagues at
Illinois State University reported in 1991 that the internalization of self-directed
speech is delayed in boys with ADHD.

23. A third executive mental function consists of controlling emotions,

motivation and state of arousal. Such control helps individuals achieve goals by
enabling them to delay or alter distracting emotional reactions and to generate
private emotions and motivation. Those who control their emotions can also
behave in more socially acceptable ways.

34
 24. The final executive function called reconstitution, has two separate
processes: breaking down observed behaviors and combining the parts into
new actions not previously learned from experience. Reconstitution gives us
fluency, flexibility and creativity; it allows individuals to reach a goal without
learning all the steps. Initial studies suggest that children with ADHD are less
capable of reconstitution than other children.

25. I suggest that like self-directed speech, the other three executive functions
become internalized during normal brain development. As children grow up,
they learn to keep thoughts to themselves, and to hide behaviors or feelings
from others. Children with ADHD do not develop this ability and therefore
display too much public behavior and speech.

A Psychological Model of ADHD

A loss of behavioral inhibition and self-control leads to these disruptions in brain functioning:

IMPAIRED FUNCTION CONSEQUENCES EXAMPLE

Nonverbal working Diminished sense of time Nine-year-old Jeff routinely forgets

memory Inability to hold events in mind important responsibilities, such as
Defective hindsight deadlines for book reports or an
Defective forethought after school appointment with the
principal.

Internalization of self- Deficient rule-governed behavior Five-year-old Audrey talks too

directed speech Poor self-guidance and self- much and cannot give herself
questioning useful directions silently on how
to perform a task.

Self-regulation of mood, Displays all emotions publicly; Eight-year-old Adam cannot

motivation and level of cannot censor them
arousal Diminished self-regulation of
drive and motivation
maintain the persistent effort
required to read a story appropriate
for his age level and is quick to
display anger when frustrated by
assigned schoolwork.

Reconstitution (ability to Limited ability to analyze 14 year-old Ben stops doing his
break down observed behaviors and synthesize new homework assignment when he
behaviors into component behaviors realizes that he has only two of the
parts that can be Inability to solve problems five assigned questions; he does not
recombined into new think of a way to solve the problem
behaviors in pursuit of a such as calling a friend for help.
goal)

35
Prescribing Self-Control

26. If, as I have outlined, ADHD is a failure in self-control, then children with
ADHD might be helped by a more structured environment. Greater structure
can be an important addition to any drug therapy the children might receive.
Currently children (and adults) with ADHD often receive drugs such as Ritalin
that improve their ability to control and regulate impulsive behaviors.
27. Such drugs have been found to improve the behavior of between 70 and
90 percent of children with ADHD older than five years. Children with ADHD
who take such medication not only are less impulsive, restless and distractible
but are also better able to hold important information in mind, to be more
productive academically, and to have more internalized speech and better self-
control. As a result, they tend to be liked better by other children and to
experience less punishment for their actions, which improves their self-image.

28. My model suggests that in addition to drugs, treatment for ADHD should
include training parents and teachers in specific and more effective methods
for managing the behavioral problems of children with the disorder. For
example, reminding the child more often about rules and time intervals. Parents
and teachers must help children with ADHD by anticipating events for them,
breaking future tasks down into smaller and more immediate steps and using
artificial immediate rewards. All these steps serve to externalize time, rules and
consequences as a replacement for the weak internal forms of information,
rules and motivation of children with ADHD.

29. In some instances, the problems of ADHD children may be so severe that
special education programs are needed. Although such programs are not a
cure for the child's difficulties, they usually provide a smaller, less competitive
and more supportive environment in which the child can receive individual
instruction. The hope is that once children learn techniques that improve self-
control, they will be able to function outside such programs.

30. There is no cure for ADHD, but much more is now known about effectively
coping with and managing this persistent and troubling developmental disorder.
The day is near when genetic testing for ADHD may become available and
more specialized medications may be designed to reduce the specific genetic
deficits of the children who suffer from it.

THE END

Adapted Text

The Author: RUSSELL A. BARKLEY is director of psychology and professor of psychiatry and
neurology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester. He received his B.A.
from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Bowling Green
State University. He has studied ADHD for nearly 25 years and has written many scientific papers,
book chapters and books on the subject, including ADHD and the Nature of Self-Control (Guilford
Press, 1997) and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis and
Treatment (Guilford Press, 1998).

36
 .‫ מחקו שורות ריקות‬,‫ לעבודה על מחשב‬:‫סטודנטים יקרים‬

ATTENTION-DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER

Pre-Reading

Eye-Catching Features

1a. Based on the eye-catching features, what aspects of ADHD will the writer
discuss?

Mark all the correct answers (√).

__ Social aspect
__ Psychological aspect
__ Behavioral aspect
__ Genetic aspect
__ Neurological aspect (the brain)

b. Based on the eye-catching features, predict the author’s purpose in this

text.
Write in your own words in English.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

(5+6= 11 points)

37
Close Reading
Section 1: Introduction

2. The writer discusses Keith's behavior in order to …

Choose one.

a. provide an example of a child who displays symptoms of ADHD.

b. present how difficult life is for one of the doctor’s patients.

c. show children how not to behave when they are in public.

d. explain that ADHD must be treated while children are still young.

(7 points)

3. Complete the sentence using one word only.

The new discovery in ADHD research today is that the cause of the disorder

may be ______________.

(6 points)

4. If all children are naturally active and impulsive, how do doctors know when
an active, impulsive child has ADHD?
_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

(6 points)

5. Does ADHD affect children only?

Check () one: Yes No

(5 points)

38
Section 2: The Search for a Cause

6a. According to the Castellanos et al. 1996 study, what is the difference

between the brains of normal children and the brains of ADHD children?

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

b. What is the function of the areas in the brain that are different in ADHD
children?

____________________________________________________________

(5+5= 10 points)

7. Skim paragraph 11-14 (read the first sentence each paragraph).

Complete the sentence.

These paragraphs discuss the idea that ADHD is _______________________

(5 points)

8. a. What is the role of the chemical dopamine?

_____________________________________________________________

b. Infer how dopamine may be an important factor in children with ADHD.

Answer in your own words.

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

(4+6= 10 points)

39
From Genes to Behavior (paragraphs 18-25):

9. Complete the table below to show

a. the four mental activities of executive functions.

b. what each activity enables us to do.

Mental activity What each activity enables us to do

(12 points)

10. According to the author, what happens to executive functions in ADHD

children?

_____________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

(6 points)

40
Prescribing Self-Control (paragraphs 26-30):

11. Skim this section (read the first sentence of each paragraph).
List 3 of the writer's recommendations for dealing with ADHD children.

a. ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

b. ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

c.____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

(12 points)

41
POST READING

12. Read again paragraph 1 (about Keith).

What recommendations or information would you choose say to Keith's

parents?

Write 2 ideas from the text. Answer in your own words in English.

Dear parents,

I would like to tell you that _____________________________________

__________________________________________________________

In addition, _________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

(10 points)

THE END

42
 ‫מטלת מנחה )ממ"ן( ‪14‬‬
‫הקורס‪ :‬אנגלית לצרכים אקדמיים‪ -‬מתקדמים א' )‪(61133‬‬

‫חומר הלימוד למטלה‪ :‬חוברת עבודה ‪Part 4- WORKBOOK‬‬

‫משקל המטלה‪6% :‬‬ ‫מספר השאלות‪12 :‬‬

‫מועד אחרון להגשה‪ :‬ראה לו"ז‬ ‫סמסטר‪2021 :‬ג‬

‫‪SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND‬‬ ‫‪August/ September 2006‬‬

‫‪43‬‬
 VIOLENT PRIDE
Do people turn violent because of self-hate, or self-love?
BY ROY F. BAUMEISTER

1. Several years ago a youth counselor told me about the dilemma he faced
when dealing with violent young men. His experience simply did not match
what he had been taught. From his everyday work, he understood that the
violent young men in his care were egotists with a grandiose sense of personal
superiority; on the other hand the articles in his textbooks told him that these
tough young men suffered from low self-esteem. He and his team decided they
could not go against decades of research, so they tried their best to boost the
young men's opinions of themselves, even though this had no effect on their
violent tendencies.

2. The view that aggression stems from low self-esteem has long been
"common knowledge". Counselors, social workers and teachers all over the
country have been persuaded that improving the self-esteem of young people
is the key to reducing violent behavior and to encouraging social and academic
success. Many teachers ask their students to make lists of reasons why they
are wonderful people or sing songs of self-celebration. Many parents and
educators are afraid to criticize kids, from fear that it could cause serious
psychological damage and turn some promising child into a dangerous
criminal. In some sports leagues, everyone gets a prize.

3. Are such feel-good exercises really the best way to build self-esteem? And,
even more important, is the basic assumption that low self-esteem contributes
to violence correct? My colleagues and I began investigating this last question
several years ago. We found article after article citing the "well-known fact" that
low self-esteem causes violence. Yet, we were unable to find any book or
paper that formally stated that theory or empirical evidence to support it.
Everybody knew it, but nobody had ever proved it.

4. Unfortunately for the low self-esteem theory, researchers now have lots of
information about people with low self-esteem, and that does not match with
what we know about aggressive personalities. People who have a negative
view of themselves usually lack confidence, try to avoid embarrassment and
do not have a strong need to prove their superiority. Aggressive attack is risky;
people with low self-esteem tend to avoid risks. When people with low self-
esteem fail, they usually blame themselves, not others.

The Author: ROY F BAUMEISTER is director of the social psychology graduate program at
Florida State University and specializes in using the empirical techniques of social science to tackle
broad philosophical questions. His most recent book is The Cultural Animal: Human Nature,
Meaning, and Social Life (Oxford University Press, 2005).

44
5. Faced with these facts, we looked for an alternative theory. A significant
influence on our thinking was the exaggerated self-importance of well-known
violent people. Saddam Hussein is not known as a shy, careful, self-doubting
individual. Adolf Hitler's ideas of a superior "master race" do not stem from low
self-esteem. These examples suggest that high self-esteem, not low, is indeed
an important cause of aggression.

The Evils of Pride

6. In the theory that we developed, threatened egotism plays a central role in

aggression. Not all people who think highly of themselves have violent
tendencies. To become violent, people's favorable opinion of themselves must
be threatened. Somebody must question it, dispute it, undermine it. People like
to think well of themselves and therefore tend to reject anything that reduces
their self-esteem. When someone suggests such a threat, some individuals
tend to shoot the messenger.

7. It would be foolish to assert that aggression always stems from threatened

egotism or that threatened egotism always results in aggression. Plenty of
aggression has little or nothing to do with how people evaluate themselves, so
obviously there are other factors involved. If our hypothesis is right, the
threatened ego turns violent when it meets an inflated or unstable opinion of
the self. These combined, greatly increase the probability of aggression.

8. So how does a social psychologist establish whether low or high self-

esteem leads to violence? Because there is no perfect, general method for
understanding complex questions about human beings, social scientists try to
conduct multiple studies with different methods. A single study can be
challenged, especially if differing views exist. But when a consistent pattern
emerges, the conclusions become hard to ignore.

9. Researchers measure self-esteem by asking a standardized series of

questions, such as "How well do you get along with 1 other people?" and "Are
you generally successful in your work or studies?" The individual then chooses
from a range of responses and is evaluated according to these self-reports.

10. Measuring aggression is trickier, but one approach is simply to ask people
whether they tend to have angry outbursts and conflicts. These self-reported
tendencies can then be compared to the self-esteem scores. Most research
has found a weak or negligible correlation, although an important exception is
the work done by Michael H. Kernis of the University of Georgia and his
colleagues. They distinguished between stable and unstable self-esteem by
measuring each person's self-esteem on several occasions and looking for
changes. The highest levels of aggression were reported by people with high
but unstable self-esteem. Individuals with high, stable self-esteem were the

1 Get along with= ‫להסתדר עם‬

45
least aggressive, and those with low self-esteem (either stable or unstable)
were in between.

Alcohol and Violence

11. Another approach is to compare large categories of people. Men on

average have higher self-esteem than women and are also more aggressive.
Depressed people have lower self-esteem and are less violent than non-
depressed people. Psychopaths tend to be very aggressive, and they have
very favorable opinions of themselves.

12. In the case of murderers, rapists and other criminals the pattern is clear.
Violent criminals often describe themselves as superior to others — as special,
elite persons who deserve special treatment. Many murders and assaults are
committed in response to blows to self-esteem such as insults and humiliation.

Violent criminals often describe themselves as special,

elite persons who deserve special treatment

13. The same conclusion has emerged from studies of other categories of
violent people. Street-gang members have been reported to hold favorable
opinions of themselves and to turn violent when these views are disputed. At
school, bullies 2 regard themselves as superior to other children; low self-
esteem is found among the victims of bullies but not among bullies
themselves. Violent groups generally have beliefs that emphasize their
superiority over others. War is most common among proud nations that feel
they are not getting the respect they deserve, as Daniel Chirot discusses in his
fascinating book Modern Tyrants.

14. Drunk people are another such category. It is well known that alcohol plays
a role in many violent crimes; alcohol makes people respond to provocations
more violently. The link with self-esteem has been less investigated, but the
findings do fit the egotism pattern: drinking alcohol tends to boost people's
favorable opinions of themselves. Of course, alcohol has many effects, such
as reducing self-control, and it is hard to know which is the biggest factor that
contributes to violence.

15. Aggression toward the self exists, too. A form of threatened egotism seems
to be a factor in many suicides. The rich, successful person who commits
suicide when faced with bankruptcy, disgrace or scandal is an example. The
old, glamorous self-concept is no longer relevant, and the person cannot
accept the new, less attractive identity.

2
Bully: ‫בריון‬

46
16. Taken together, these findings suggest that the low self-esteem theory is
wrong. But none involves controlled laboratory experiments (which social
psychologists consider to be the most convincing form of evidence). When we
conducted our initial review of the literature, we found no lab studies that
investigated the link between self-esteem and aggression. Our next step,
therefore, was to conduct some.

More than Just Self-Esteem?

17. The first challenge in conducting lab studies was to obtain reliable data on
the self-images of participants. We decided that studying self-esteem alone
was not sufficient. The hypothesis of threatened egotism suggested that
aggressive behavior would tend to occur only among people with extremely
high self-esteem. In the hope of identifying these people, we measured the
participants' level of narcissism.

18. Narcissism is a mental illness characterized by inflated or grandiose views

of self, the desire for excessive admiration, an unreasonable or exaggerated
sense of entitlement, a lack of empathy, an exploitative attitude toward others,
a tendency to envy or wish to be envied, frequent fantasies of greatness, and
arrogance. [...]

19. We measured self-esteem as well as narcissism, because the two traits

are not the same, although they are correlated. Individuals with high self-
esteem need not be narcissistic. They can be good at things and recognize
that fact without being self-important or regarding themselves as superior
beings.

"One of the Worst"

20. The next problem was how to measure aggression in the laboratory. The
procedure we used involved having pairs of participants deliver blasts of loud
noise to each other. The noise is similar to physical aggression because it is
unpleasant, and people wish to avoid it. The volume and duration of the noise
was used to evaluate aggression towards the participant's partner.

21. To study the "threat" part of threatened egotism, we asked participants to

write a short paper expressing their opinion on abortion. We collected the
papers and (in secret) randomly marked them good or bad, without reading
them. The good evaluation included very positive ratings and the handwritten
comment, "No suggestions, great paper!" The bad evaluation contained low
marks and an insulting criticism, "This is one of the worst papers I have read!"
Each participant then received his or her own paper back. The participants
were made to believe that their partner had written the evaluations on their
paper.

47
22. To give the participants an opportunity to express anger at their evaluation
we made them compete against their partner in a game. The losing partner
would get a blast of noise from the winning partner …..

Aggression was highest among narcissists who had

received the insulting criticism

23. The results supported the threatened-egotism theory rather than the low
self-esteem theory. Aggression (blasting noise) was highest among narcissists
who had received the insulting criticism. Nonnarcissists (with either high or low
self-esteem) were significantly less aggressive, as were narcissists who had
been praised.

24. An interesting incident illustrates the attitude of narcissists. When a

television station reported our findings, we repeated the experiment in front of
the cameras, this time with new participants. One of them scored in the 98th
percentile on narcissism and was quite aggressive. Afterward he was shown
the film and given the opportunity to refuse to let it be aired. He said to put it on
— he thought he looked great. We explained to him that he might not want to
be seen by a national audience as a highly aggressive narcissist. The man
smiled and said he wanted to be on television. When we proposed that the
television station at least not show his face, the man refused and said he
wished the program could include his name and phone number.

25. Would our laboratory findings correspond to the real world? We were able
to visit two groups of violent criminals in prison. We gave them the self-esteem
and narcissism questionnaires. When we compared the criminals' self-esteem
with the results for male college students there was no difference. On
narcissism, however, the violent prisoners had a higher average score than
any other group of people. It was the fundamental difference between these
prisoners and college students. If prison seeks to deflate young men's
delusions that they are God's gift to the world, it fails.

What about Deep Down?

26. A common question in response to these findings is: "Maybe violent people
seem on the outside to have a high opinion of themselves, but isn't this just an
act? Could it be that they really have low self-esteem on the inside, even if
they won't admit it?"

48
27. Various researchers have tried and failed to find any sign of a soft inner
core among violent people. Martin Sanchez-Jankowski of the University of
California, Berkeley, who spent 10 years living with various gangs and wrote
one of the most thorough studies of youth gang life, had this to say: "Some
studies of gangs suggest that many gang members have tough exteriors but
are insecure on the inside. This is a mistaken observation." Dan Olweus of the
University of Bergen in Norway has devoted his career to studying childhood
bullies, and he agrees: "In contrast to a fairly common assumption among
psychologists and psychiatrists, we have found no indicators that the
aggressive bullies (boys) are anxious and insecure."

28. Our research gives us cause to worry about how schools and other groups
try to boost self-esteem with feel-good exercises. A favorable opinion of
oneself can be highly stressful, especially when it is not justified. In my view,
there is nothing wrong with helping students and others to take pride in
accomplishments and good deeds. But there is plenty of reason to worry about
encouraging people to think highly of themselves when they do not deserve it.
Praise should be tied to performance (including improvement) rather than
given freely as if everyone had a right to it simply for being oneself.

29. Persons with low self-esteem do not have a tendency to aggressive

responses. Instead, one should beware of people who consider themselves to
be superior, especially when those beliefs are inflated and do not reflect
reality. Conceited, self-important individuals turn nasty toward those who
puncture their bubbles of self-love.

Adapted text

The End

49
50
 .‫ מחקו שורות ריקות‬,‫ לעבודה על מחשב‬:‫סטודנטים יקרים‬

VIOLENT PRIDE
Pre-Reading
Eye- Catching Features:

1a. Read the title and the subtitle.

What two sides of the debate will be discussed in this text?

Side 1: ____________________________________________________

Side 2: ____________________________________________________

b. Read this enlarged quote:

"Violent criminals often describe themselves as special, elite persons who

deserve special treatment."

Which side of the debate does this quote support?

Choose one. ____ Side 1 ____ Side 2

(4+ 4= 8 points)

Close Reading
Introduction (paragraphs 1-5):

2a. The write mentions the 'low self esteem theory' in paragraph 4. What
does he mean?
Answer according to paragraphs 1-3.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

b. Is the theory widely accepted today?

Choose one. ___ Yes ___ No
(5+3= 8 points)

51
3a. Does the writer support or refute the low self-esteem theory?

Choose one. ___ Supports ___ Refutes

b. What arguments does the writer bring to support or refute the theory?
List 3 from this section (paragraphs 1-5).

1. ________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

(4+ 9= 13 points)
The Evils of Pride (paragraphs 6-10):

Paragraph 6-7:
4. Based on the writer's theory of 'threatened egotism,' what conditions
lead to violence?
The first is done for you.
List 2 more conditions.

1. A person has a high opinion of himself/ herself.

2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________

(8 points)

52
 Paragraphs 8-10:
5. Does the study of Michael H. Kernis support or refute the writer's
threatened egotism theory?

Choose one. ___ Support ___ Refute

Support your answer.

___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

(7 points)

Alcohol and Violence (paragraphs 11- 16):

6a. For two of these groups, complete the table below to show:
• different groups' opinions of themselves
• the threat to their opinion
• the group's response to the threat.

Choose 2 and fill in the table.

Group Group's opinion The threat to their The group's

of itself opinion response
Violent
criminals

Nations

Rich,
successful
people

b. Explain in your own words what idea these examples illustrate.

___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
(8+6= 14 points)

53
 More than Just Self-Esteem? (Paragraphs 17-19):

7a. What trait did the writer decide to add to his study?
______________________

b. How are people with this trait described in the text?

__________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
(8 points)

One of the Worst (paragraphs 20-25):

8a. In the experiment described in paragraphs 20-24, how did the researchers
make the participants feel threatened?
_______________________________________________________

b. What were the study's conclusions?

_______________________________________________________
(8 points)

What about Deep Down? (Paragraphs 26-29)

9. Would Martin Sanches- Jankowski and Dan Olweus agree with the
following statement?

'Deep down, violent people have low self-esteem.'

Choose one. ____ Agree ___ Disagree

(4 points)

54
10. What does the author advise educators to do, and what does he advise them
not to do?
Complete the sentence.

Educators should _______________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________,
but they should not ______________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________.
(6 points)

Post Reading
11. Based on the whole text, who would agree with the following statement?

'Violent people have low self-esteem'

Mark "Agree(s)" or "Disagree(s)" for each of the people or groups in the table.
Agree(s) Disagree(s)
The general population (people)
The writer
Michael H. Kernis (paragraph 10)
Martin Sanchez-Jankowski (paragraph 27)
(8 points)

12. Did the main idea of this text surprise you?

Explain why or why not.
Write 2-3 sentences in your own words in English.

Yes, I was very surprised because / no, I wasn't surprised because _______
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
(8 points)
The End

55
56
 ‫מטלת מנחה )ממ"ן( ‪15‬‬

‫הקורס‪ :‬אנגלית לצרכים אקדמיים‪ -‬מתקדמים א' )‪(61133‬‬

‫חומר הלימוד למטלה‪ :‬חוברת עבודה ‪(Part 5) WORKBOOK‬‬

‫משקל המטלה‪6% :‬‬ ‫מספר השאלות‪12 :‬‬

‫מועד אחרון להגשה‪ :‬ראה לו"ז‬ ‫סמסטר‪2021 :‬ג‬

‫‪57‬‬
Eavesdropping1 on Happiness

ABSTRACT
Well-Being Is Related to Having Less Small Talk2 and More
Substantive Conversations
1. Matthias R. Mehl1,
2. Simine Vazire,
3. Shannon E. Holleran1 and
4. C. Shelby Clark1

+ Author Affiliations
1. University of Arizona
2. Washington University in St. Louis

1. Matthias R. Mehl, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

85721 E-mail: mehl@email.arizona.edu

1. Is the happy life characterized by shallow, happy-go-lucky moments and trivial small talk,
or by reflection and profound social encounters? Both notions—the happy ignorant and the
fulfilled deep thinker—exist, but little is known about which interaction style is actually
associated with greater happiness (King & Napa, 1998). In this article, we report findings from
an observation study that investigated whether happy and unhappy people differ in the amount
of small talk and substantive conversations they have.
2. Although the societal and long-term implications of happiness have been studied
extensively (Eid & Larsen, 2008; Howell & Howell, 2008), little is known about the daily social
behavior of happy people, primarily because of the difficulty of objectively measuring everyday
behavior. Many behavioral measures (e.g., measures based on people's experiences or daily
activities and thoughts) rely on self-reports. Therefore they cannot be used to separate out true
associations between happiness and behavior from biases or idealized self-views. This is
especially true when evaluating behaviors such as the depth (or otherwise) of one’s
conversations. To address this difficulty, we used the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR;
Mehl, Pennebaker, Crow, Dabbs, & Price, 2001), a digital audio recorder that unobtrusively 3
tracks people's real-world behavior by periodically recording snippets of sounds while
participants go about their daily lives.

1
Eavesdropping-(‫האזנת סתר )לצותת לשיחה‬

2
Small talk- ‫שיחת חולין‬
3
Unobtrusively- ‫מבלי להפריע‬
58
Method
3. Seventy-nine undergraduates (32 males, 47 females) wore the EAR for 4 days (Vazire &
Mehl, 2008). The EAR recorded 30 s of sounds every 12.5 min, providing 23,689 recordings
(M = 300 per participant). For each recording, coders identified whether the participant was
alone or talking with other people, and whether the conversation consisted of small talk or
substantive discussion. Small talk was defined as an uninvolved, banal conversation (i.e., only
trivial information was exchanged; e.g., “What do you have there? Popcorn? Yummy!”). A
substantive conversation was defined as an involved conversation of a substantive nature (i.e.,
meaningful information was exchanged; e.g., “She fell in love with your dad? So, did they get
divorced soon after?”). See Table 1 for reliabilities of the coding.

Table 1.
Daily Interaction Variables: Reliabilities and Correlations With Well-Being

4. With the help of the EAR codings (deep/trivial) and the frequency of deep/trivial
conversations, we computed for each participant the percentage of conversations that were
small talk or substantive. Across all participants, on average 17.9% (SD = 15.4%) of
conversations were small talk and 35.5% (SD = 24.7%) were substantive. (Some conversations
fell into neither category.) Substantive conversations were significantly related to time spent
socializing (r = .38), eating (r = .33), and watching TV (r = –.22). Small talk was unrelated to
all standard EAR activity categories. For a description of the coding procedures, see Vazire and
Mehl (2008).
5. We assessed well-being with several methods. Participants completed the Satisfaction
With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985; α = .93) and a single-item
happiness measure (“I see myself as someone who is happy, satisfied with life”) twice, 3 weeks
59
apart. The single-item self-report of happiness was combined with reports from two to three
informants per subject on the same measure, α = .80. (The informants had known the subject
and the subject's family for a number of years. For details on the recruitment of these
informants, see Vazire & Mehl, 2008). By combining (i.e., averaging) the self- and informant-
based happiness measure with participants’ self-reported life satisfaction, we obtained a more
reliable, multimethod, well-being index.
Subjects rated their own personality twice, 3 weeks apart, on the Big Five Inventory (John &
Srivastava, 1999; αs ≥ .92), and informants rated subjects’ personality on the same inventory.
To obtain a multimethod measure of personality, we then averaged self-reports and informant
reports.

Results and Discussion

6. Results were consistent with prior research (Diener & Seligman, 2002) in that higher well-
being was associated with spending less time alone, r = –.35, and more time talking to others,
r = .31. Further, higher well-being was associated with having less small talk, r = –.33, and
having more substantive conversations, r = .28. For example, compared with the unhappiest
participants (z = –2.0 SD), the happiest participants (z = +1.5 SD) spent about 25% less time
alone (58.6% vs. 76.8%) and about 70% more time talking (39.7% vs. 23.2%). They also had
roughly one third the amount of small talk (10.2% vs. 28.3%) and twice as many substantive
conversations (45.9% vs. 21.8%). The effects for the well-being index were comparable to those
for the life-satisfaction and happiness measures separately and emerged for both weekdays and
weekends (Table 1). […]
7. Together, the present findings demonstrate that the happy life is social rather than solitary,
and conversationally deep rather than superficial. What makes these findings especially
convincing is that a combination of methods was used to obtain an assessment of happiness and
personality. Also, the replication of findings across measures of well-being and across weekday
and weekend behavior is encouraging.
8. Naturally, our findings only indicate correlation and are therefore causally ambiguous. On
the one hand, well-being may be the reason for a person's desire for substantive interactions;
happy people may be “social attractors” who facilitate deep social encounters (Lucas &
Dyrenforth, 2006). On the other hand, deep conversations may actually make people happier.
Just as self-disclosure can contribute to a feeling of intimacy in a relationship, deep
conversations may contribute to a sense of meaning in the interaction partners. Therefore, our
results raise the interesting possibility that happiness can be increased by encouraging
substantive conversations (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006). Future research should examine
this possibility experimentally.

60
9. Remarking on Socrates’ saying that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” Dennett
(1984) wrote, “The overly examined life is nothing to write home about either” (p. 87).
Although we hesitate to enter such delicate philosophical disputes, our findings suggest that
people find their lives more worth living when examined―at least when examined together.

Acknowledgments
We thank John Doris for his helpful comments. Portions of these data were published in Mehl,
Vazire, Ramirez-Esparza, Slatcher, and Pennebaker (2007); Hasler, Mehl, Bootzin, and Vazire
(2008); and Vazire and Mehl (2008). The present analyses do not overlap with those reported in
these articles.

References

1. ↵
1. Dennett D.C.
(1984). Elbow room: The varieties of free will worth wanting. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
2. ↵
1. Diener E.,
2. Emmons R.A.,
3. Larsen R.J.,
4. Griffin S.
(1985). The Satisfaction With Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75.
CrossRefMedlineWeb of Science
3. ↵
1. Diener E.,
2. Seligman M.E.P.
(2002). Very happy people. Psychological Science, 13, 80–83.
4. ↵
1. Eid M.,
2. Larsen R.
(Eds.). (2008). The science of subjective well-being. New York: Guilford Press.
5. ↵
1. Hasler B.P.,
2. Mehl M.R.,
3. Bootzin R.R.,
4. Vazire S.
(2008). Preliminary evidence of diurnal rhythms in everyday behaviors associated with positive affect.
Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 1537–1546.
CrossRefWeb of Science
6. ↵
1. Howell R.T.,
2. Howell C.J.
(2008). The relation of economic status to subjective well-being in developing countries: A meta-
analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 536–560. …………………..

61
62
 .‫ מחקו שורות ריקות‬,‫ לעבודה על מחשב‬:‫סטודנטים יקרים‬

Eavesdropping on Happiness
Pre-reading:

1. Look at the eye-catching features.

a. What shows you this is a research text?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

(5 points)

b. The abstract in this text is unusually short. It provides only one type of
information.
What type of information does this abstract provide?

Choose one.
__ Research question
__ Method
__ Subject
__ Results
(5 points)
2. Read paragraphs 1-2.
What research question did the study investigate?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

(5 points)

63
 3. Based on the eye-catching features and paragraphs 1-2, explain what the
researchers investigated in this study.
Write in your own words in English.

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

(8 points)

Close Reading:
Method, Results, Discussion

4. Who were the subjects of the study?

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

(6 points)

5. "Coders" and "coding" are mentioned in paragraph 3. What is the function of

“coders”?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

(6 points)

6. On what basis were conversations classified as “small talk” or “substantive”?

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

(6 points)

64
7. What three instruments were used to measure well-being?
1._______________________________________________________________
2._______________________________________________________________
3._______________________________________________________________
(6 points)

8. a. In this text, what does the term "informant" refer to? Answer in Hebrew.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

b. What information did informants provide about the subjects?

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

(10 points)

9. a. List 2 main findings of the study.

1. ______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

b. What is the author's conclusion?

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
(8+6= 14 points)

65
10. What are the author's recommendations for further research on the subject?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
(6 points)

Post Reading:

11. a. Why does the author add "at least when examined together" at the end of
par. 9?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

b. Why do you think the title of this text is "Eavesdropping on Happiness?

Answer in your own words in English.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

(5+8= 13 points)

12. Do you agree with the main conclusion of this study?

Explain why you agree or disagree.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
(10 points)

The End

66