Kryachkov 2!indd

BUILDING A WORD BANK
Ex. 15. Below is a list of words and phrases related to the state of modern society. 
Think of collocations they can form; use the internet or consult a dictionary of 
collocations where necessary.
morals, moral decline, relationship, moral values, marketization
Ex. 16. Make up your own list of topic-related vocabulary necessary to speak on the 
issue and share it with the class.
TALK and DISCUSSION
Ex. 17. Discuss the ideas from the text in Reading 2. 
A. Modern society
1. 
Change has never always been good. 
2. We live in the age of selfishness. 
3. The logic of the market has now become universal, the ideology not just of neoliberals, 
but of us all, the criterion we use not just about our job or when shopping, but about our 

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UNIT I
26
Д. А. Крячков
innermost selves, and our most intimate relationships…. Our social world has come to 
mirror and mimic the rhythms and characteristics of the market, contractual in nature. 
4. The media has made us a more thoughtful and knowledgeable society. 
5. … society has moved … towards an increasingly adolescent culture which denigrates 
age and experience.
6. The decline of settled community and the rise of the media-society has desensitized us as 
human beings. … Life becomes shopping. 
7. 
In the growing absence of real-life experience we have become prey to what can only be 
described as a voyeuristic relationship with the most fundamental experiences.
B. Relationships today
1. The intimacy on which our sense of well-being rests — a product of our closest, most 
intimate relationships, above all in the family — is in decline.
2. There is an increasingly powerful tendency to judge love and sex by the criteria of con-
sumer society — in other words, novelty, variety and disposability.
3. Our relationships may be more cosmopolitan but they are increasingly transient and 
ephemeral.
4. Love — which belongs in the realm of the soul and spirit rather than the body — be-
comes more elusive.
C. Social problems in general
Do you agree with the author’s treatment of the issue? Why (not)? Which points made in the article 
do you find the most important/relevant to your life or society in general today? Which points 
made in the article do you feel do not apply to you or society in general today? How do the au-
thor’s views on the subject differ from the views held by people in our culture or other societies? 
What can, should or is being done to address the issues raised by the author?
Ex. 18. Explain and expand on what the following concepts mean. 
(lack of ) moral fibre 
a moral duty (to do sth)
a moral right (to do sth) 
a moral issue
moral 
scruples 
moral 
integrity
moral 
standards moral 
crusade
moral 
majority 
moral 
climate
Ex. 19. 
a) Discuss your answers to the questions.
1. 
How do we define what is morally right? Do we rely on modern science, religious leaders, best 
friends, personal experience, God’s word, or government? Is the notion of what is (im)moral 
immune to change or is it mutable? Why? 
2. Do we always act morally? Do you find it easy to live according to your moral values? Why or 
why not? Does society reward moral behavior?

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