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Ethics. Does anybody care? kick off Read the following definitions of ethics. Discuss with a partner: which is the best one in your opinion? “Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong.” “Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs.” “Being ethical is doing what the law requires.” “Ethics consist of the standards of behavior our society accepts.” Can you suggest a definition of ethics?
What is ethics? A few years ago, sociologist Raymond Baumhart asked business people, “What does ethics mean to you?” Among their replies were the ones above in italics. Those replies might be typical of our own. The meaning of “ethics” is hard to pin down, and the views people have about ethics are shaky. Many people tend to equate ethics with their feelings. But being ethical is clearly not a matter of following one’s feelings. A person following his or her feelings may recoil from doing what is right. In fact, feelings frequently deviate from what is ethical. Nor should one identify ethics with religion. Most religions, of course, advocate high ethical standards. Yet if ethics were confined to religion, then ethics would apply only to religious people. But ethics applies as much to the behavior of the atheist as to that of the saint. Being ethical is also not the same as following the law. The law often incorporates ethical standards to which most citizens subscribe. But laws, like feelings, can deviate from what is ethical. Finally, being ethical is not the same as doing “whatever society accepts.” In any society, most people accept standards that are, in fact, ethical. But standards of behavior in society can deviate from what is ethical. An entire society can become ethically corrupt and Nazi Germany is a good example of a morally corrupt society. Moreover, if being ethical were doing “whatever society accepts,” then to find out what is ethical, one would have to find out what society accepts. The lack of social consensus on many issues makes it impossible to equate ethics with whatever society accepts. If being ethical were doing whatever society accepts, one would have to find an agreement which does not, in fact, exist. What, then, is ethics? Ethics is two things. First, ethics refers to well based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that enjoin virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty. And, include standards relating to rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to privacy. Such are adequate standards of ethics because they are supported by consistent and well founded reasons. 8 Advantage VESTIBULAR
Secondly, ethics refers to the study and development of one’s ethical standards. As mentioned above, feelings, laws, and social norms can deviate from what is ethical. So it is necessary to constantly examine one’s standards to ensure that they are reasonable and well-founded. Ethics also means, then, the continuous effort of studying our own moral beliefs and our moral conduct, and striving to ensure that we, and the institutions we help to shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly-based. www.scu.edu
1 Discuss examples of ethical behavior with a partner. 2 According to the text, which of the following statements is false? 1 Ethics is concerned with feelings as long as people know if what they are doing is right. 2 Although religion and laws discuss ethical standards, they do not necessarily follow what is ethical. 3 Being ethical does not mean doing whatever society accepts as there is no social consensus on many issues. 4 Being ethical means, among other things, having rights to live in society. 5 Examining what is ethical may contribute to an improvement of standards of moral beliefs and conduct. 3 We can infer from the text that ‘ethics’ is not 1 searching the development of ethical standards. 2 having the right to do whatever somebody wants. 3 looking for rights and obligations which promote human welfare. 4 studying standards which may ensure a better life for everyone. 5 examining moral beliefs and conduct to promote well-based standards of living.
down to work
frankandernest.com
1 Based on the cartoon, discuss the following extract from the text with a classmate. Do you agree with it? Why/Why not? “Being ethical is also not the same as following the law. The law often incorporates ethical standards to which most citizens subscribe. But laws, like feelings, can deviate from what is ethical.” 2 Read the text again and match the following words to their definitions. 1 corruption ( ) the conviction that something is true 2 moral
(
) moral goodness
3 values
(
) the improper use of influence and power in which people behave against moral social standards
5 honesty
(
) the condition of being truthful, a virtuous person
6 compassion
(
) beliefs of a person or social group in which they judge what is right or wrong
7 belief
(
) relating to the act of judging righteous human attitudes and character
(
) one’s understanding or sympathy for the suffering of another
4 virtues
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pronouns u possessive pronouns = mine / yours / his / hers / ours / yours / theirs l used to replace a possessive adjective + noun I didn’t have an umbrella, so Ann gave me hers. (her umbrella) “Whose shoes are worn out?” “Mine.”
We spent a lovely afternoon at the beach with some friends of ours. (we could also say “some of our friends”)
Mr. Thompson had a fight with a cousin of his. (or “one of his cousins” which means that Mr. Thompson has more than one cousin) It was a great idea of yours to go fishing on such a lovely Sunday. (that was one of your great ideas!) u object pronouns = me / you / him / her / it / us / you / them l used after a verb or preposition Joe always teases me. I can’t put up with him any more! u reflexive pronouns = myself / yourself / himself / herself / itself / ourselves / ourselves / themselves l used when the subject and object of a sentence refer to the same person or thing I enjoyed myself in Greece last summer! Dave considered himself to be intelligent, but he wasn’t. The boys looked after themselves while their parents were working. l used for emphasis I hope you like the ice cream — I made it myself. (nobody helped me) l used to emphasize that the subject caused a certain action He got himself arrested. (= he did something to cause it) l to mean “alone”: Eve lives by herself. (= on her own)
3 Can you find any pronouns in the cartoon on page 9? 4 Say what the underlined pronouns refer to. The first one has been done for you. 1 Suppose you are a sales clerk in a store and some friends of yours want you to let them shoplift. How would you respond if your friends said to you: yours = your group of friends / them = your friends “Just turn your back. You won’t even be involved.” “Don’t let it bother you. Everybody does it.” it = the act of shoplifting / it = shoplift 2 Some day medical science will probably advance to the point where scientists can create artificial wombs and this would allow them to make a fetus grow outside the mother’s body. 3 Some religions have lots of followers since they always portray themselves as being against immoral behavior and for truthful acts. 4 Which is the most ethical choice: to leave money with the rich people who own it or to give money to the poor people who need it in order to survive? 5 Fill in the gaps with an appropriate pronoun. Sometimes we find in very difficult situations. The last time I went abroad with a friend of , we had a good laugh! We were in Florence, Italy, and planned to spend the day in Venice. We wanted to go by train, and in order to buy the ticket, we had to use our “Italian”, which was, in fact, very basic. The ticket agent, who did not understand a word we said, tried to help , but without much success. Finally, after lots of miming, a handsome young man approached and asked in very good English: “Would you like to help ?” 10 Advantage VESTIBULAR
EXAM PRACTICE
Universidade Federal do Acre (UFAC) 2007
Answer the questions from 2 to 3 according to text 2. 2 There are four diseases mentioned in the text. Which of them are transmitted by mosquitoes? a) yellow fever, cholera, dengue
1 Look at the comic strip and then choose the correct alternative.
b) yellow fever, dengue, malaria c) cholera, fever, microorganisms d) mosquito, fever, dengue e) fever, dengue, malaria 3 Find in the text: • The noun and the verb for the adjective deadly • The verb for the adjective carrying • The noun for the adjective warm • A synonym for the verb expand a) dead – death, carries, warming, expanding b) death – die, carried, warmness, spread c) death – die, carry, warning, spread d) die – died, carry, warmly, carrying e) death – dice, carried, warming, bringing
a) Calvin asked his father to wash the car with him.
Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA) 2007
b) Calvin asked his father for ten dollars to wash the car. c) Calvin invented a story about the aliens’ invasion to get ten dollars. d) Calvin said to his father that aliens had kidnapped someone.
Texto I Global Warming The climate is crashing, and global warming is to blame.
e) Calvin wanted to wear clothes like the aliens had.
Text 2 Tropical Diseases With the global warming, mosquitoes are everywhere. And this means that microorganisms will be spread to new habitats, bringing diseases to new population. Mosquito-born-malaria, for example, generally appears in humid regions with average temperatures above 61 degrees Fahrenheit. Global warming and the range of 6 to 10 degrees will increase malaria-carrying mosquitoes on 60 percent of the globe. Climate change is also increasing the range of Aedis aegypti, the species of mosquito that carries both dengue and yellow fever. Another deadly threat is the resurgence of cholera. (There were 5,000 deaths in the 1991 cholera epidemic in South America.) How many will die next time? “If tropical weather is expanding, tropical diseases will expand.” (by Dr. Paul Epstein, Harvard School of Public Health — New English Point I, 1999)
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The image of Earth as organism has probably been used so much that it is no longer effective. But that’s not to say the planet can’t behave like a living thing, and these days, it’s a living thing fighting a fever. From heat waves to storms to floods to fires to massive glacial melts, the global climate seems to be crashing around us. For decades, scientists have been warning this would happen if we continued pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, trapping the heat that flows in from the sun and raising global temperatures. Global warming, even most skeptics have concluded, is the real deal, and human activity has been causing it. “Things are happening a lot faster than anyone predicted,” says Bill Chameides, chief scientist for the advocacy group Environmental Defense and a former professor of atmospheric chemistry. “The last 12 months have been alarming.” And it’s not just scientists who are taking notice. In a new Time/ ABC/News/Stanford University survey, 85% of respondents agree that global warming probably is happening. Moreover, most respondents say they want some action taken. Of those surveyed, 87% believe the government should either encourage or require lowering of power-plant