UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO

FACULDADE DE FILOSOFIA, LETRAS E CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS

Departamento de Letras Modernas – Área: Inglês

Disciplina: Escrita Acadêmica em Inglês

Profa. Dra.: Marília Mendes Ferreira

Exercises on summaries:
Read the summaries below and answer the three questions for the three texts:

1) What is the main idea of the text according to the summary?

2) Are there problems in this summary? ---yes ---no why? What are the problems?
3) What is the relationship between the writer and the reader in a summary?

Summary 1

Kati Marton/2004, presents a lot of statistics in her text showing that the
situation of the women´s health is worse than the men. She presents some exemples like
“in Sub-Saharan African, 60 percent of people with AIDS are women”. It occurs
because girls has to sell her body to exchange for food; or because, women do not ask to
her husband to use a condom. Another health problem is the malaria and tuberculosis _
“this disease could be cured with $10 regimen of antibiotics”.
Marton brings some ideas that could solve some problems the solution to the
AIDS is to educate the women and “guarantee a human and reproductive rights”.
Another idea that is more a criticism than an idea is that the wealthy nations should
spend their money in health, instead of, spend on the military.
She finishes the text arguing that this injustice will never end, unless the
wealthiest nations make something to change it.

Summary 2

Even after decades of progress and discussion, Marton repudiates and can not
accept the absence of attention about women´s health care. We do not need to go far to
discover that they are still treaty as just a sexual object in many parts of the world, with
no rights or respect. According to his research, more than 60 percent of infect people by
AIDS is women. In Africa, the most part of women married with oldest men, who
sometimes, have more than one wife. It is shameful to see girls of 12 years old being
obligeted to get married. And the polygamy makes the AIDS a pandemic that get worse
with the easier contract of malaria and tuberculosis, since there is no immunity.
When the rights of ask for a condom in the sexual relation and the difficult to get
contraception are together, the effect can not be good: almost 80 million of pregnancies
per year and a lot of abortions, which can kill the mother. It is not just a woman
problem, since they are base of a family an so, the base of society. How can a wife and
a mother take care of her husband and child if nobody takes care of her? If all the nation
go on with the bad moral and physical condition of women, the society will be affected
by disease, gap of health and pain.
Summary 3

Marton (2004) denounces the poor standart of women´s health worldwide and claims
that aid from developed nations could help modify this reality.
She lists a number of problems such as HIV pandemic, reproductive related
problems and illnesses such as tuberculosis and malaria; whose consequences are more
desastruos for women than men; and which prevention and cure could be improved with
unexpensive and simple measures. According to the author to invest in women´s health
will ultimately lead to healthier families and nations.
Norton concludes by urging leadership and aid to this problem from the wealthy
nations, particularly the American Government.

Rank the summaries giving 1 for the worst and 3 for the best. Explain your
answer.

After reading these texts, what can you say about the social situation of summaries?
Read the original text, and answer the question again.