Assignment Task:
There are two passages
What words or phrases are ambiguous and why?
This passage is adapted from an opinion delivered by Chief Justice Warren Burger in a Supreme Court response concerning the constitutionality of a Georgia obscenity statute. We categorically disapprove the theory, apparently adopted by the trial judge, that obscene, pornographic films acquire constitutional immunity from state regulation simply because they are exhibited for consenting adults only. This holding was properly rejected by the Georgia Supreme Court. ... In particular, we hold that there are legitimate state interests at stake in stemming the tide of commercialized obscenity, even assuming it is feasible to enforce effective safeguards against exposure to juveniles and passersby. Rights and interests other than those of the advocates are involved. These include the interest of the public in the quality of life and the total community environment, the tone of commerce in the great city centers, and possibly, the public safety itself... As Chief Justice Warren stated, there is a "right of the Nation and of the States to maintain a decent society ... ," Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 199 (1964) (dissenting opinion.) ... The sum of experience, including that of the past two decades, affords an ample basis for legislatures to conclude that a sensitive, key relationship of human existence, central to family life, community welfare and the development of human personality, can be debased and distorted by crass commercial exploitation of sex.
What words or phrases are ambiguous and why?
Universities should do more to prevent sexual harassment in the classroom. All across the campus, students are harassed by professors, and almost nothing ever happens to stop it. Why does it happen? Professors have power over students, and many use that power to take advantage of their students. How convenient for the strong to misuse the weak in this fashion! Even if the act of the harassment were not bad enough, the effects often decrease productivity and enthusiasm among victims. Then the very institution that failed to put a stop to the harassment turns around and judges students on their diminished productivity, the direct result of the harassment. How horribly unfair it is! Think about this problem. If more female than male students are harassed in a sexual fashion, then more women students than male students will have the added burden of mastering their classes PLUS having to compensate for the psychological harm associated with the sexual harassment. On campuses on which there is the persistent threat of sexual harassment, it is truly remarkable that female students perform so well. Think what these same students could do without this problem of sexual harassment hanging over them.