COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS ON READING PASSAGES IN ENGLISH FOR WELFARE SERVICES UNIT 1 DIVORCE AND CHILDREN p.15 1. What are parents who are getting a divorce frequently worried about? 2. How do children feel about divorce and what do they believe? 3. What kind of illnesses can the children develop? 4. How do children sometimes react to divorce? 5. When will children do best? 6. What is particularly harmful for children? 7. What is vital to the child s well-being? 8. What can be helpful for the children and divorcing parents? MARRIAGE BREAKDOWN AND DIVORCE p.21 1. What are the matters of most concern for divorcing couples? 2. When the partners cannot agree who takes the decision? 3. What is out-of-court mediation? 4. When is divorce available? 5. Who handles the divorce proceedings? 6. What are the two stages of the divorce proceedings? 7. What does the pronouncement of the Decree Nisi signify? 8. What is a Decree Absolute? p.22 1. Explain the functions of the following: a barrister a solicitor an attorney a notary a lawyer 2. What is the legal system in England based on? 3. What is Roman or Civil law based on?
UNIT 3 EDUCATION p.35 1. What are early excellence centres? 2. How are they provided? 3. What do the centres bring together? 4. What services do the centres offer? 5. Why do the centres differ from each other? 6. Describe the services offered on the White City estate centre. 7. Describe what services the following offer: A drop in facility A skilled family worker A counselling service A health visitor Social services 8. What does the centre help parents get back into? 1. Describe the following: THE STATE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN ENGLAND p.40 Pre schools Primary schools Secondary schools Comprehensive schools Secondary grammar schools Secondary modern schools Specialist schools Schools for special needs Independent schools 2. What is the term higher education used to describe? 3. What is required to get into university? 4. How many universities are there in the UK? 5. What are they governed by? 6. What does their academic freedom enable them to do? 7. When were polytechnics given degree-awarding powers? 8. Which subjects do the universities offer? 9. What are the names of the first degrees? 10. For which subjects are special qualifications awarded? 11. What classes are the degrees divided into? 12. Which pupils does secondary education cover? 13. What qualifications can pupils get at a secondary level?
UNIT 4 HOMELESSNESS p.45 1. What have over a quarter of the people sleeping on the streets been excluded from? 2. What is CRISIS? 3. What should more homeless charities do? 4. Is anything recommended by the report? 5. What has the government said it will do? 6. Is poor education the cause of anything? 7. What is it crucial to do? 8. Are there any other risk factors? If so, what are they? 9. What are the proposals set out in the report? CRISIS p. 52 1. What are the goals of Crisis? 2. When was it founded and why? 3. When was the first crisis Christmas shelter opened? 4. What are the new schemes which are developed by Crisis? 5. What is meant by the stepping-stones approach? 6. What is the most important thing for people sleeping on the streets? 7. What do ReachOut, SmartMove and Skills for Life provide?
UNIT 5 DISABILITIES p56 1. What is SP? 2. Who is the magazine directed at? 3. What kind of information does the magazine give? 4. What does the See Right campaign aim at? 5. What happened until fairly recently if a blind person wanted to read a newspaper? 6. What kind of information is contained in the magazine? 7. Why did the Internet help blind people? 8. What does the new magazine give to men with serious sight problems? USEFUL AIDS FOR COMMON DIFFICULTIES p.62 1. What are the three major categories of disability? 2. What has the Disabled Living Foundation drawn up?
UNIT 6 UNEMPLOYMENT p. 65 1. Has the number of jobless risen or fallen in the UK? 2. Has the number of people claiming benefits risen or fallen? 3. What percentage is the unemployment rate? 4. What guidelines were followed to compile the data? 5. Has unemployment risen or fallen according to the old measure? 6. Which political party preferred the old measure? 7. How many people have a job? 8. Has a higher level ever been recorded? 9. Where have job losses been concentrated and why? 10. What has the OECD predicted? 11. What often happens to unemployment even after the economy starts to recover?
UNIT 7 ADOPTION p.75 1. What guidelines have been revealed? 2. What do social services try to do? 3. Why do some local authorities still refuse to place children for adoption? 4. What does the new guidance stress? 5. What should families help adopted children to do? 6. What must agencies be sure about? 7. Which criteria are not appropriate? 8. What does the guidance call for? 9. How many children were adopted in England? 10. What did the Director of the British agencies for adoption warn? 11. What do many adults who were trans-racially adopted say? 12. Was there anyone who didn t think the report was very significant. If so, why? p.82 1. Define what fostering means? 2. What is the eventual aim of fostering? 3. Who can make an adoption application? 4. What can unmarried couples not do? 5. What can the adoption office in the local social services department provide? 6. What can couples do after the child has lived with them for three months? 7. What happens if the natural parents do not withdraw their consent?
UNIT 8 DRUGS p.84. 1. What is the relationship between mental illness and substance use and abuse? 2. What do alcohol and psychoactive drugs do? 3. What do some people who are suffering from emotional disorders do? 4. What does the method of self-treatment do? 5. Why do some people drink or take marijuana? 6. How does problem drinking or drug abuse often start? 7. Is drinking and drug use an effective solution? 8. What is another reason for drinking or drug use for some people? 9. What does ecstasy do? 10. When the drugs and drinks wear off how do people feel? 11. What happens in severe cases? 12. What can drugs or alcohol use mimic? 13. What kind of symptoms can drug abuse cause? 14. What can the following produce? Stimulants Cocaine Opiates 15. Do drugs and alcohol make things better or worse? EUROPEAN MONITORING CENTRE FOR DRUGS AND DRUG ADDICTION p. 92 1. What is the EMCDDA? 2. Which areas does it work in? 3. What is the agency s aim? 4. When was it set up and why? 5. What is the mission and agenda? 6. What are some of the EMCDDA s main task? 7. Who does the EMCDDA collaborate with? 8. What does the active co-operation with European bodies allow for?
UNIT 11 MULTI- RACIAL BRITAIN p.116 1. Where do British people s origins come from? 2. What were the various reasons which made the following people come to Britain? Africans French Irish Russians 3. Why did many people go to Britain? 4. Why was it easier to immigrate before the First World War? 5 Why did a monarch or government encourage immigration? 6. Are the newcomers a high or low proportion of the British population? 8. What have they met with and what were they quick to show? 9. What were many willing to do? 10. What is remarkable? 11. What happened in 1066? 12. Why was the community of French Jews indispensable for William 1? 13. What kinds of people arrived in the fourteenth century? 14. What did immigrants do in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? 15. What jobs did the Irish do in the 1830s and 1850s? 16. What had happened by the end of the eighteenth century? 17. How were conditions for the workers? 18. What did the British Empire owe its success to? 19. What were people from the Empire expected to do? 20. Why did the British government encourage immigration after the Second World War? 21. Where did the immigrants come from? 22. What happened in the 1970s? 23. Where do most immigrants come from today? 24. Are the ethnic minorities integrated into British society? 25. Why is British culture constantly enriched? THE RACE RELATIONS ACT (1976) p.122 1. What does the Race relations Act do? 2 Does the Act deal with prejudice or discrimination? 3. What does prejudice mean? 4. When does discrimination occur? 5. What is racism? 6. Under the Act how many kinds of discrimination are there? 7. Describe the types of discrimination. 8. Define victimisation. 9. How does the British Race Relations Act tackle racial discrimination?