Liking is for Cowards. Go for what hurts.

Delprøve 1a

Besvarelse 1a

1.

Rettelse:

Having heard the terrible news, we realized these things could have happened to anybody.

Forklaring:

Fejl i verbalbøjning. Sætningen er i pluskvamperfektum/perfektum(?) og indeholder modalverbet ’could’. Modalverber skal altid følges af infinitiv uden ’to’, i denne sætning infinitiv af verbet ’to have’, og når man danner pluskvamperfektum skal man bruge en form af ’have’ + perfektum participium – her ’happened’. Derfor skal det være ’have happened’.

2.

Rettelse:

She has for the last couple of years tried to bring in new colours into their living room.

Forklaring:

Fejl I stavning. ‘Living room’ skrives i 2 ord.

3.

Rettelse:

There are many things to be done in the house before they can move in.

Forklaring:

Kongruensfejl. Der er ikke verbalkongruens, og det skal rettes således at verbet har samme tal som subjektet. ‘There’ har ental i verbet, hvis det efterfølgende egentlige subjekt er i ental, og flertal hvis det efterfølgende egentlige subjekt er i flertal. Da det egentlige subjekt i denne sætning er ‘many things’, som er flertal, skal verbet også være i flertal og rettes derfor til ‘are’.

4.

Rettelse:

Peter’s mother gave her son (some) good advice, but he did not take it.

Forklaring:

Fejlagtig brug af ubestemt artikel. ‘Advice’ er et utælleligt substantiv og man kan derfor ikke skrive ubestemte artikler foran. Den skal derfor udelades. Hvis man vil udtrykke en vis mængde ved utællelige substantiver kan man f.eks. anvende ord som: ‘much’, ‘some’ og ‘any’ foran substantivet.

5.

Rettelse:

The Ministry of Education has sponsored a programme for particularly gifted and talented language students.

Forklaring:
Forveksling af adjektiv og adverbium. Adverbier lægger sig til verber, adjektiver and adverbier eller hele sætningen. Adjektiver subjektet i sætningen og ikke verbet. I dette tilfælde lægger ‘particular’ sig til ‘gifted’ og ‘talented’, der er adjektiver, hvilket betyder, at ‘particular’ skal rettes til ‘particularly’, da det skal være et adverbium.
I mange tilfælde dannes adverbier ved, at der tilføjes –ly til adjektiver, hvilket også er tilfældet her.

6.

Rettelse:

One of the local stores was robbed by some young thugs and the owner killed with a knife.

Forklaring:

Fejl i brug af præposition. ‘By’ bruges i passive sætninger til at angive den (det/de), der handler/påvirker. Da dette er en passiv sætning rettes det til ‘by’.

7.

Rettelse:

Her husband, who had recently returned from Afghanistan, was not used to watching television all day.

Forklaring:

Fejl i bøjning. Præpositionen skal efterfølges af en –ing form og derfor skal ‘watch’ rettes til ‘watching’.

Delprøve 1b

Besvarelse 1b:
1.
Do they live in Newcastle?
2.
Does he know how to fix a broken engine?
3.
Will she always love him?
4.
Are we ready to leave?

På engelsk kan man danne spørgsmål på flere forskellige måder. Som det er tilfældet i de to første omskrivninger, kan man skrive sætningen om ved hjælp af verbet ‘do’. Spørgsmål, der dannes ved hjælp af ‘do’ dannes i nutid med ‘do’ eller ‘does’ og hovedverbets infinitivform. I datid dannes det med ‘did’ og hovedverbets infinitivform.
Ved sætninger, der står i førnutid, førdatid og fremtid bruges hjælpeverber til at danne spørgsmål.
Eksempelvis kan man starte sætningen med ‘will’, ‘have’, ‘can’, ‘may’, ‘must’, ‘shall’ og ‘will’.
Man kan også danne spørgsmål ved at indlede med et spørgeord, som f.eks. ‘who’, ‘where’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘why’ og ‘how’.
Man kan også ændre på ordstillingen, selvom det ikke er så ofte man gør det på engelsk. Et eksempel på dette er det 4. eksempel i besvarelsen, hvor spørgsmålet altså er dannet ved at lave omvendt ordstilling og sætte verbet først.

Delprøve 1c

Besvarelse 1c:
Denne tekst består hovedsageligt af en simpel sætningsstruktur, hvilket vil sige, at der ikke er, eller er få sætninger, der indeholder bisætninger. Eksempler på dette er når Jesse L. Jackson skriver: ”Rocky was not a champion – it was Joe Frazier”, ”Rocky is fictitious; Joe was reality” ”Rocky never tasted his own blood.” Disse sætninger er alle eksempler på en simpel sætningsstruktur, hvilket bidrager til, at denne er skrevet i lav stil. Herunder kommer dog også, at der bliver anvendt opremsning og gentagelser, eksempelvis: ”.. he who was blood of our blood, flesh of our flesh and spirit of our spirit. (..)”. Grammatikken er korrekt og der bliver ikke anvendt sammentrækninger, hvilket man ellers ofte ser i sprog med lav stil, men ordforrådet hører ind under dagligdagsordforråd. Det ordforråd, der bliver anvendt, er ikke særlig nuanceret og består ikke af mange, lange komplicerede ord.
Der er også visse talesprogsmarkører tilstede som for eksempel: ”So, tell the truth.” hvilket ikke er en vending man typisk vil se i skriftsprog.
Der er også bagvægt i næsten alle sætningerne i teksten, hvilket betyder, at det mest væsentlige optræder i starten af sætningen, hvilket gør det til en let og overskuelig tekst – eksempelvis: ”We must know this Joe Frazier” og ”We must honor” ”We must build” er alle eksempler på dette. Her optræder de centrale verber i starten af sætningerne, hvilket også er karakteristisk for lav sproglig stil.
At teksten er et uddrag fra en tale, kan også være grund til, at den sproglige stil er på denne måde, da man typisk i talesprog anvender lav stil. Teksten er derfor også i høj grad uformel.
Jesse J. Jackson benytter sig i høj grad af billedsprog i sin tale. Billedsproget han benytter i talen gør, at læserens tanker bevæger sig i en bestemt retning, i dette tilfælde i forbindelse med det positive billede han vil skabe af Joe Frazier. Derudover gør det også teksten/talen levende og læseren skaber billeder på sin nethinde ud fra billedsproget.
Han anvender mange metaforer i sin beskrivelse af Joe Frazier, herunder ”he who was blood of our blood, flesh of our flesh, and spirit of our spirit.” og ”Joe’s fists were smoking. They had a fire in them and where there is smoke there is fire.”

Delprøve 1d

Besvarelse 1d:
2012 marks the centenary of the English mathematician Alan Turing’s birth.
During world war 2 he worked at cracking secret German codes for the English intelligence service; he is especially known for having developed methods that cracked the German navy’s Enigma code machine.
He is considered as the founder of modern computer science, and the Turing test is still included in the development of artificial intelligence. The purpose of the test is basically that a computer has to be able to lead a meaningful conversation with a human without being revealed.
The jubilee is being celebrated with a series of tests at a research centre outside of London.

Delprøve 2
Assignment B: “Liking is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts”

In today’s western society almost everybody owns a smartphone, laptop or an iPad. Those who do not own one of these technological devices are most likely being left out of social events and gatherings. At least that is what a lot of today’s teenagers excuse their excessive use of these devices with. But is that really the reason as to why especially teenagers, but also adults, are putting so much effort and energy into social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram?
According to Jonathan Franzen this is not the case. In the essay “Liking is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts”, based on a commencement speech Jonathan Franzen held at Kenyon College, Ohio, he argues that a much more serious and potentially dangerous reason lies behind this. He claims that these technological devices are “enablers of narcissism” of which the only cure to this level of self-inflicted narcissism is taking a risk, in the form of love, as love, he claims, “exposes the lie” that the techno-consumerist order has brought upon us.

Jonathan Franzen directs his focus of the essay on the creation of narcissists by technological devices and what to do about this problem.
He has many points as to why a lot of teenagers and adults have developed narcissistic tendencies because of this.
The first point, which is crucial to the creation of this problem, is that with the technological advances in today’s society, many people have an excessive amount of devices that are created with the one purpose of satisfying our social needs and demands within seconds. When our devices can no longer fulfill this purpose, we simply replace them with some new ones.
Second of all he explains how the way of communicating and making friends on social medias are much simpler and with less risks of rejection involved. We simply send a friend request and within a very short amount of time, we have added a new ‘friend’ to our big ‘collection’ of friends on Facebook. Another problematic feature on Facebook, according to Franzen, is the fact that we can ‘like’ each other’s photos and statuses. He says it is problematic because as he says:

“Liking, in general, is commercial culture’s substitute of loving.”

We substitute the more important and risky parts of life with ‘liking’.

All these parts of the problematic behavior of many people, boils down to one problematic concept; narcissism. The narcissistic behavior is all about self-presentation and our technological devices are what is making it possible for people to present themselves in exactly the way they want to. This is also the reason as to why Franzen calls our technological devices for “enablers of narcissism”. This excessive use of social media and technological devices causes a feeling of self-sufficiency when receiving the wanted attention, on Facebook it could be in the form of ‘likes’ on ones profile picture.

As Facebook, and other social media platforms, create a feeling of self-sufficiency for the narcissist and is the perfect platform for creating an appealing version of oneself without the risks of real life rejections, many people stick to the Facebook version of themselves instead of having to face rejections in real life, especially when it comes to love. As it says in the text:

“The prospect of pain generally, the pain of loss, of breakup, of death, is what makes it so tempting to avoid love and stay safely in the world of liking.”

He states that the ‘liking’ and other prospects of social media create a false perception of safety. He sees this as extremely problematic and therefore he has an important message to the readers:

“Pain hurts but it doesn’t kill. When you consider the alternative – an anesthetized dream of self-sufficiency, abetted by technology – pain emerges as the natural product and natural indicator of being alive in a resistant world.”

To take these risks and feeling the pain and troubles that are a natural part of life, is to live.

To express his ideas and messages to the readers, he has made use of informal language. The language in the text can be considered colloquial language, as there is a frequent use of contractions. By being this informal he may be able to reach a broader variety of readers, maybe especially teenagers, whom he want to reach with his message. With his use of words he also directs his speech towards younger people, as he uses words like ‘Facebook’, ‘Liking’ and so on.
He wants to reach young people and make them think about their use of social media. If he had just criticized the young people, he probably would not have reached any of the young people’s minds. Instead he identifies with the younger generations, which enables the readers to put themselves in his place and maybe give their use of social media some thought.

He is actually even more specific in his message to the readers than just wanting to make them think. He has a clear opinion about this, which already is visible in the title:

“Liking is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts.”

Besides making the young people think about their use of Facebook, he wants to change their mindsets and make them take some chances and risks in life.

Franzen is very concrete in his wishes for the excessive users of Facebook and other social media platforms and in his definition of the ‘narcissistic’ users.
He is very subjective and one-sided in his speech. Therefore you might want to take a look at some of the positive sides of this case before making up your mind.
Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. in Fullfillment at Any Age has a different opinion than Franzen. She is aware of the fact that narcissism can be a big issue, but in her contribution to this discussion in “Psychology Today”, she proposes the thought about narcissism, in small doses, having a positive influence on people’s lives.
One of the many potential positive sides of narcissism she mentions is:

“They seem better able to cope with anxiety, particularly in social situations.”

Besides this point she mentions a lot of positive things about narcissism in small doses, like more confidence.1

And even though Susan Krauss may not be right about the positive sides of narcissism, you have to be careful with only viewing the negative sides of our progress in technology. We have endless ways of communicating and keeping in touch with family and friends even though we are on the other side of the globe, which is essential for a lot of people. Though social media may affect some people to the extreme, where they may develop narcissism, there can still be endless of positive sides of social media, and it should not be discarded.