“Our brains are constantly, subtly being primed
in fascinating ways by our physical surroundings”
By: Charles Montgomery
Published: The Atlantic; November 22, 2013; www.theatlantic.com
Level of Difficulty:***
BEFORE YOU READ
Study the
streets the links to which are below and try and answer the following
questions:
Second link
·
On
which street would you walk faster?
·
On
which street would you feel more relaxed and happy?
·
On
which street would you find it easier to talk to strangers?
·
On
which street would you want to linger and perhaps sit down somewhere?
·
Now
try and explain the reason for your answers.
QUESTIONS
1.
According
to Goffman, what makes public and private places a stage and the people round
us actors?
2.
The
case of the man in the example in the second paragraph and the subjects in D.S.
Wilson and Daniel O’Brien’s study both prove
that……………………………………………………………………………..
3.
The
examples of the pavement, the drinks and the escalator seem to show
that……………………
There are two answers; state both.
4.
What
does the example involving The Salvation Army have in common with that
involving film clips? Both involve…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
5.
The
paragraph beginning “Neuroscientists have found…” focuses on:
·
The
mental processes underlying our responses or reactions
·
The
hormonal basis of our reactions or responses
·
The
biological basis of our responses or reactions
·
All
of the above
·
None
of the above
·
Other:
please specify
6.
What
does “This” refer to in the phrase “This should be a concern…”?
7.
The
prejudice that emerged in the Dutch experiment could be alleviated through
…………………
8.
There
are two reasons why the writer and Zak met with the reactions they did on the
Main Street of Disneyworld (link below); they are: (https://www.google.com.tr/search?q=Main+Street+Disneyworld&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=zaHnUrPNCcOSywOGsoLIAQ&ved=0CCsQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=509
9.
Which
of the sentences below best summarizes the effect modern cities have on people:
·
They
cause loneliness
·
They
cause aggression
·
They
cause nostalgia
·
They
dehumanize people
10.
Both
neuroscientists and Main Street USA’s designers discovered that……………………………………
11.
Why
have care facilities replicated Main Street USA to comfort residents rather
than employ some other method?
12.
What
is the implication of Main Street USA in terms of our physical environment?
13.
What
examples of “social spaces” can you provide based on the text?
14.
The
experiments at the BMW Guggenheim lab support the contention that………………………….
15.
What
does “This” refer to in the phrase “This points to an emerging disaster”?
16.
Read
the paragraph beginning “This points to an emerging disaster in street psychology”.
What is it exactly that has such a negative effect on the aging population?
·
Alienation
·
Destruction
of the community
·
The
disappearance of small local businesses
·
All
of the above
·
None
of the above
·
Other:
please specify
17.
What
two functions does the following sentence fulfill: “Fortunately, some cities
have begun to enact laws to stop developers from killing the sociability of
streets.”?
18.
Manhattan
has been provided as an example of a city which………………………………………See link: https://www.google.com.tr/search?q=manhattan&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=aqLnUuWuC4eFtAb5oYDoBg&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=509
19.
Read
the examples provided in this last part of the text carefully to the end. Why
exactly is New York “adopting new zoning that limited the ground floor width of
new stores on major avenues on the Upper West Side”? There are two answers;
find both.
20.
What
is the outcome of the regulations in Vancouver as far as residents go?
WRITING TASK
Select an area in a city you know well and
imagine you have been given a free rein to do whatever you wanted. Describe
what improvements you would make and why. Imagine you have to report to a
council which is likely to disagree with you so justify your proposals. You can
accompany your essay with photos, videos, graphics or a power point
presentation to support your case. You may also send in the result and it could
get posted.
WHY WE ARE SOMETIMES
KIND WITHOUT REASON KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES
This wonderful text
brings home a point that we all know instinctively: that skyscrapers, aluminum,
glass and the loss of small businesses leads to alienation and unhappiness,
which eventually impacts how long we live and what quality of life we enjoy. As
such, it is fascinating to read. It also allows for a creative and original
writing task, which I hope will be fun to do.
- The fact that life is a series of
performances (in which we are all continually managing the impression we
give other people).
- Being high up, or the mere act of
ascending, reminds us of lofty ways of thinking and behaving.
- First alternative: we regularly respond to
our environment in ways that seem to bear little relation to conscious
thought or logic. The second alternative: the environment feeds us subtle
clues that prime us to respond differently to the social landscape – even
if those clues are wholly untethered from any rational analysis of our
surroundings.
- A relationship between attitude and
altruism
- Other: 1+3
- The fact that humans have a huge
concentration of oxytocin receptors in the oldest part of the brain which…
- Design
- The fact that people go there intending to
be happy; every detail on the artificial street is intended to draw you
deeper into a state of nostalgic ease. ‘The
powerful priming effects of the landscape’ is not explicit enough; it
doesn’t tell you specifically what the reason is.
- The fourth
- Design could be used to get people from a
state of anxiety and fear to a place of hope and happiness.
- Because the place effect is so powerful. Just effect won’t do; it is a reference
and you need to see what it refers to in order to be precise.
- That every urban landscape is a collection
of memory-and-emotion-activating-symbols. The following sentence is
optional.
- Clean, tidy, well kept cities, access to
nature, smaller structures, cultural heritage which has been preserved;
not ultra modern… In fact, the opposite of everything in the text.
- If a street features uniform facades with
hardly any doors, variety or functions, people move past as quickly as
possible.
- People reported feeling significantly
along the messy but active street front, than they did along the blank,
tidy façade.
- All of the above
- First of all: it is the topic sentence for
both the paragraphs; second of all, it provides transition from the first
paragraph of examples to the second as the second paragraph is all about
the killing of sociability.
- Killed the citizenry’s right to a healthy,
life-giving public realm
- First alternative: passive bank facades
bleed life from the sidewalk and two many of them can kill a street.
Second alternative: Stores are the soul of the neighborhood. Small
pharmacies, shoe stores, they mean everything to us (the second sentence
is optional). In short, Gale Brewer’s comments.
- People actually walk, bike or take the
subway to the big box, sit out front at the Starbucks, sipping their
lattes in the rain.
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