1. UNIT 11 Lesson 4
Everyday things
Objectives
To use different academic reading strategies to help you understand texts.
To understand a text using true and false cognates, sources of
information, and types of texts.

2. 1. What Do you read?
2. What is it like to read?
3. Why do you read?

3. What are cognates?

4. Exercise on cognates
animal
Human
equal
family
declaration
Colonial
decimal
dinosaur initials
Past
corrosion
pleasure
contamination
Atlas
metal
Acid sport
Dozen
Diary
evidence hospital

6. Muhammad
Yunus: Banker to
the Poor
(preview)
• http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=YxpTFwQx-A8
•

7. The Banker to the Poor
Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker and economist. The third of nine children, Prof
Yunus was born in the village of Bathua, Chittagong. During his school years, he was an active Boy
Scout, and travelled to West Pakistan and India in 1952, to Europe, the USA, and Canada in 1955 and
to the Philippines and Japan in 1959, to attend Jamborees. In 1957, he enrolled in the Department of
Economics at Dhaka University and completed his BA in 1960 and MA in 1961.He obtained his PhD in
economics from Vanderbilt University in the US in 1969. From 1969 to 1972, he was an assistant
professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN.
Before a professor of economics, he is most famous for his successful application of the
concept of microcredit, the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for
traditional bank loans. He is the founder of Grameen Bank in 1983, and he and the bank were bi-
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts o create economic and social development among the
poor.
In 1976 during visits to the poorest households in the village of Jobra near Chittagong
University, Yunus discovered that very small loans could make a difference to a poor person. Jobra
women who made bamboo furniture had to take out usurious loans to buy the bamboo. He made a
loan of USD 27.00 from his own pocket to 42 women in the village, who made a net profit of USD 0.02
each on the loan. Yunus believed that if given the chance, the poor would repay the borrowed money
and hence microcredit could be a viable business model. He eventually managed to secure a loan
from the Janata Bank to lend it to the poor in Jobra in December 1976.
By July 2007, one year after receiving the Peace Nobel Price, the Grameen Bank had issued
USD 6.38 billion to 7.4 million borrowers. To ensure repayment, the bank uses a system of solidarity
groups. These small informal groups apply together for loans and its members act as co-guarantors of
repayment and support each other's efforts at economic advancement.
The success of the Grameen model of microfinancing has inspired similar efforts in many
countries throughout the developing world, and even in industrialized nations, including the USA.
Many, but not all, microcredit projects also retain his emphasis on lending specifically to women.
More than 94% of Grameen loans have gone to women, who suffer disproportionately from poverty
and who are more likely than men to devote their earnings to their families.

8. TRUE COGNATE SPANISH EQUIVALENT
1.
2.
3.
Look for words, which are similar both in English and to Spanish
(cognates) and write down max. 15 of them with their corresponding
Spanish equivalent.

9. COMPLETE THE GAPS
Grameen Bank, established by
____________________, was first set up in the
country of ________________. Grameen Bank
typically loans amounts of money ranging from
______________________ to a few thousands to
poor people, mostly ______________, in order
to set up _____________. The Bank now
operates in _______________ . Yunus was
awarded the__________________ in __________

10. WORKING ON A DIALOGUE