"When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in 1969 he uttered a memorable sentence: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." If he had landed on the moon today, no doubt he would have said a much more politically correct sentence: "That's one small step for a person, one giant leap for humankind." Less poetic but certainly more literally representative of the whole of the human race!
Language tends to use male pronouns automatically whenever the sex of the person is not known: "Every student must bring his own calculator." This is a sexist use of language, which often suggests an inherent male dominance in many fields of life, and can reinforce the idea of female inferiority.
There is a tendency to associate certain jobs with men or women. For instance, "A director must do his best for his company," but "A nurse must treat her patients with kindness." In addition, job names often include reference to the sex of the person: "I'm meeting a group of businessmen next Friday," or "The housemaid must clean this." The use of such words tends to emphasise the idea that it is not normal for women to be in professional, highly-paid, technical or manual jobs, and that it is not natural for a man to work in such a caring (and generally poorly-paid) role as that of a nurse.
Are these statements TRUE or FALSE? Justify your answers with the precise words or phrases from the text. (?)
Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon in the early 60s.
When we don't know the sex of a person, we normally use male pronouns.
All job names contain an indication of the sex of the person doing it.
Men's jobs are usually better paid.
Explicación: Para la primera afirmación el párrafo
relevante es:
"When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in 1969 he uttered a memorable sentence"Â Â
La afirmación es falsa ya que Neil Armstrong piso la luna en 1969, a finales de los años 60 y no a principio de esta década como indica la afirmación in the early 60's).
Mientras que para la segunda es:
"Language tends to use male pronouns automatically whenever the sex of a person is not known"Â Â
Como el texto indica, el lenguaje tiende a utilizar pronombres masculinos cada vez que el género de una persona se desconoce.
Y para la tercera:
"In addition, job names often include reference to the sex of the person"Â Â
La palabra clave en esta oración es often (= a menudo). Según el texto, los nombres de los trabajos incluyen a menudo alguna referencia al género de la persona, pero no todos, como indica la afirmación. De hecho, sólo tenemos que pensar en nombres de trabajos que no hacen referencia alguna al género de su profesional: doctor, teacher, baker, computer technician ...
Y para la cuarta:
"The use of such words tends to emphasize the idea that it is not normal for women to be in professional, highly-paid, technical or manual jobs, and that it is not natural for a man to work in such a caring (and generally poorly-paid) role as that of a nurse"Â Â
Según el texto, a veces el lenguaje tiende a resaltar la idea de que no es normal que una mujer se ocupe de trabajos técnicos y mejor pagados (como businessmen) y que al mismo tiempo no es natural que un hombre realice trabajos que normalmente están peor pagados (como nurse o housemaid).