UNIT 8

Text A

Pre-reading Activities
First Listening
1. As you listen to the tape the first time, mark each word or phrase J or T, to indicate whether Jill (the woman) or Tim (the man) says them. (Some words might be spoken by both people!)
animal anywhere asleep car cold decent ignore law light no one police safety sleepy social contract who knows

Then briefly summarize each person's attitude toward the social contract.

Second Listening
2. Whose point of view is closer to your own? Are there situations when it's okay to break the rules? Are there rules it's never okay to break, even when you're alone?

Unwritten Rules

Bob Greene

The restaurant was almost full. A steady hum of conversation hung over the room; people spoke with each other and worked on their meals.
Suddenly, from a table near the center of the room, came a screaming voice: "Damn it, Sylvia...."
The man was shouting at the top of his voice. His face was red, and he yelled at the woman sitting opposite him for about fifteen seconds. In the crowded restaurant, it seemed like an hour. All other conversations in the room stopped, and everyone looked at the man. He must have realized this, because just as suddenly as he had started, he lowered his voice and finished whatever it was he had to say in a tone the rest of us could not hear.
It was startling precisely because it almost never happens; there are no laws against such explosions, and with the pressures of our modern world you would almost expect to run into such things on a regular basis. But you don't; as a matter of fact, when I thought it over I realized that it was the first time in my life I had witnessed such a demonstration. During all the meals I've had in restaurants, I had never seen a person start screaming at the top of his lungs.
When you're eating among other people, you don't raise your voice; it's just one example of the unwritten rules we live by. When you consider it, you recognize that those rules probably govern our lives on a more absolute basis than the ones you could find if you looked in the law books. The customs that govern us are what make a civilization. There would be chaos without them, and yet it's not at all clear why — even in our disintegrating society — we obey them.
How many times have you stopped at a red light late at night? You can see in all directions; there's no one else around — no headlights, no police cruiser idling behind you. You're tired and in a hurry. But you wait for the light to change. Is it for safety's sake? No; you can see that there would be no accident if you drove on. Is it to avoid getting arrested? No; you are alone; there's no one to catch you. Still, you sit and wait.
At major athletic events, it is not uncommon to find 90,000 or 100,000 people sitting in the stands. On the playing field are two dozen athletes —maybe fewer. There aren't enough security guards on hand to keep all the spectators from getting out of their seats and walking onto the field. But it never happens. Regardless of the emotion of the contest, the spectators stay in their places, and the athletes are safe in their part of the arena. The invisible barrier always holds.
In restaurants and coffee shops, people pay their bills. It's a simple enough concept. Yet it would be remarkably easy to wander away from a meal without paying at the end. Especially in these difficult economic times, wouldn't you expect this to become a common form of cheating? Why doesn't it happen more often? It's just another unwritten rule of human conduct that people automatically make good on their debts. They would no sooner walk out on a bill than start screaming.
I know a man who, when he parks his car at a parking meter, always puts change in the meter even if there's time left on it. He regards it as the right thing to do. He says he isn't doing it just to extend the time remaining—even if there's sufficient time on the meter to cover whatever task he has to perform at the location, he pays his own way. He believes that you're supposed to purchase your own time; the fellow before you purchased only his.
There are so many rules like these—rules that we all obey—that we think about them only when that rare person violates them. In the restaurant, after the man had yelled "Damn it, Sylvia" there was a tentative atmosphere among the other diners for half an hour after it happened. They weren't sure what disturbed them about what they had witnessed; they knew, though, that it had violated something very basic about the way we're supposed to behave. And it bothered them—which in itself is a hopeful sign that, more often than not, all is well.
(750 words)
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