3 Money

An escape from poverty

TEDTALKS
JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ has a degree in economics and
international relations from the University of Virginia and a Master’s
in Business Administration from Stanford University. After she
finished university she worked at Chase IVIanhattan Bank, not for
the high salary, but because it gave her an opportunity to travel,
and to learn about how money works. Her dream was to help poor
people and change the world.

After three years in banking, she left to work in Africa as a

financial expert for the World Bank and the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

In 2001 she started her own company - Acumen - using her

experience in banking. The company helps people to help
themselves by lending money to small, local businesses that
bring clean water, houses, medicine energy, farming equipment
and techniques, and education to poor people.

In 2009 she published The Blue Sweater, a book about how people
all over the world are connected - even if they don’t know it.

CAREER PATHWAYS
1 Read the text. Are these statements true (T) or false (F)?
1 Novogratz has a Master’s degree in business.
2 When she first started her career, she hoped
to earn a lot of money.
3 She took a job in Africa with Chase Manhattan Bank.
4 Acumen is a business that improves the lives
of poor people.
5 The Blue Sweater is a company that gives workers
fair pay to make clothes.
TED PLAYLIST
2 Other TED speakers are interested in topics similar to
Jacqueline Novogratz’s TED Talk. Read the descriptions
of five TED Talks at the top of page 25. In your opinion,
which is the best title for this playlist, a, b or c?
a Africa rising: stories of small business success
b Understanding Africa: problems and solutions
c Financing Africa: why we all should support charity
2 Which two speakers suggest thinking in new and different
ways about Africa?___________________________
3 Which speaker explains that African businesses will soon
□ become very successful?_____________
□
4 Complete the examples with the highlighted words from
the TED playlist.
□
O 1 a small amount of money that must be returned to the
giver - A _____________ gave the restaurant just enough
□ cash to buy food for its first week of business.
2 money given by a country to help another country -
Some people believe that wealthy nations use
_____________ for political reasons.
3 trying to improve - People who live in _____________
countries often don't have basic things like clean water.
4 the condition of being very poor - If we could share
money in a fair way we could solve the problem of
_____________ for the whole world.
5 very fast economic growth - The factory’s success led
to a _____________ for the small town, which had an
increase in population of 10,000 in six months.

3 Read the TED playlist again and answer the questions. Which talk would you most like to see? Why? Watch the
talk at TED.com.
1 Which two speakers discuss lending money to
businesses?__________________________

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 Q Jacqueline Novogratz: A third way to think about aid
People often disagree about foreign aid, and tlie best
way to organize it. The two main choices are charities and
businesses. Novogratz suggests a middle way and gives
examples of how new businesses can bring change to society.
Q Jessica Jackley: Poverty, money - and love
What do you think of poor people? Maybe what Jessica
Jackley once thought: ‘they’ need ‘our’ help - usually a few
coins in a jar. The co-owner of Kiva.org talks about how her
attitude changed - and how her work with lending small
amounts of money (microloans) has brought new power to
people who live on a few dollars a day.
Q Andrew Mwenda: Aid for Africa? No thanks.
In this talk, journalist Andrew Mwenda asks us to think again
about the ‘African question’ - to look past the news stories
of poverty, war and great need and see the opportunities for
bringing money and happiness to the continent.
AUTHENTIC LISTENING SKILLS Rhythm
and stress
6 S l l E O You are going to hear a podcast in which a
member of the Keynote team talks about Sangu Delle’s
TED Talk, In praise o f macro - yes, macro - finance in
Africa. Listen to these extracts from the podcast. Underline
the syllables that are stressed in the words in italics.
1 I was very interested in Delle’s talk because my daughter -
a doctor - does some work in Africa.
2 They work for a charity called Irise, which helps
schoolgirls in Africa by providing education.
3 Delle’s message was clearly delivered and at times quite
amusing.
LISTENING
Listen to the full podcast. Choose the correct
option to make true sentences.
1 Mike says he likes Delle’s clothes / voice.
2 Delle presents information about aid and the number of
new businesses / economic growth.
3 The charity work that Mike’s daughter does is / isn’t like
the aid that Delle talks about.
8 Listen again. Is each statement true (T) or false (F)?
1 Mike’s daughter is the only doctor on the Irise team.
2 Mike thinks that some parts of Delle’s talk are funny.
3 Delle believes that helping Africans start small
businesses is a bad idea.
4 The mobile telephone company was good for Africa
because it created jobs.
Q Sangu Delia: In praise of macro - yes, macro - finance
in Africa
In this short talk, financial expert Sangu Delle questions
whether small loans to small businesses are the best way
to help developing countries. Delle says that while we
may think every African wants to own a business, actually
most people want jobs. He says we should support large
companies and factories — and make it easier for them to
buy and sell African products.
Q Charles Robertson: Africa’s next boom
In the past ten years, there has been slow but sure economic
development across the continent of Africa. But economist
Charles Robertson has this idea: Africa’s economy is about
to grow suddenly. He explains that rising education levels
and increased money from abroad will bring fast economic
improvement for one million people, sooner than you may
think.
5 Mike says that Irise may not help people. □
6 Mike doesn’t really agree with Delle’s ideas. □
VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT
9 Read the sentences from the podcast. Choose the
correct meaning of the words in bold.
1 He’s very striking in his traditional African dress,
a scary
b handsome
c tall
2 This made him very interesting and watchable.
a enjoyable to see
b difficult to understand
c interesting to know
3 Delle’s message was clearly delivered and at times quite
amusing, even though the subject of lifting Africa out of
poverty was deadly serious.
a very dangerous
b extremely boring
c important and needing attention
4 He doesn’t think we should give tiny amounts of money at an
individual level to create an army of African entrepreneurs,
a people who start businesses
b people who fight wars
c people who buy products
□ 5 Delle tells the story of an African entrepreneur - a
□ businessman who started a mobile telephone network
□ with 24 million customers across 40 African countries,
a charity
□ b system
c club
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