Social Issues: Charity and Healthy Living

Helping others, and staying well

This topic covers two things that look unrelated and sit together on the specification. - **Charity and voluntary work** - helping, donating, giving your time - **Healthy and unhealthy living** - health, illness, and the things that damage it They belong together because both are about **what people do about a problem**, which is what a speaking or writing task on this topic will ask you. The grammar point in this module is one Hebrew does constantly and English does not: **joining two nouns together so they make a single idea.** Once you see it, you will notice it in words you already know.

Words for helping

The first half of the topic. Read each one aloud before moving on.

Match each charity word

Which word do you need?

You want to say you give money to a good cause. Which Hebrew word means **to donate**?

• לתרום
• לעזור
• צדקה
• מתנדב

Two kinds of social issue

Sort every word in this topic into one of these two columns as you meet it.

Words for health

Select the TWO Hebrew words that describe an action rather than a state or a person.

• לעשן
• לנוע
• חולה
• מחלה

Two nouns, one idea

Hebrew joins two nouns together to make a single idea, where English usually needs "of" or a whole phrase. The grammar books call it the **construct state**. **You already know three of them from this topic**, and once you see the pattern the words stop being three separate things to memorise: - **קונצרט צדקה** - a charity concert, literally a concert-of-charity - **סוחר סמים** - a drug dealer, literally a dealer-of-drugs - **מכור לסמים** - someone addicted to drugs **The first noun tells you WHAT it is; the second tells you what KIND.** A concert-of-charity is still a concert. A dealer-of-drugs is still a dealer. One more thing, using the structure you met in the festivals topic. To say something has to be done, put the word for "one must" in front of an infinitive: **צריך לעזור, צריך לתרום** - one must help, one must donate.

Charity and health in words

A person who gives their time without being paid is a _____, and the noun for the help they give is _____. To give money to a good cause is _____, and the word for a good cause itself is _____. On the health side, the word for an illness is _____, and the verb meaning to take exercise is _____.

Match each health word

Say what has to be done

You want to say that one must help. Choose the Hebrew for each part.

Talking about a social issue

**General conversation question: "What do you think young people can do to help others?"** This looks harder than it is. Three moves, all possible with this topic's list. **1. Name the action, not just the noun.** **לעזור** and **לתרום** are worth more than a list of nouns, because a verb lets you say what somebody DOES. **2. Use the structure you have.** **צריך** plus an infinitive turns an opinion into a sentence without needing any new grammar. **3. Name the person.** **מתנדב** costs nothing and moves the answer from an abstract idea to somebody doing something. **The pattern: say what must be done, name who does it, add one concrete thing.** A charity concert is a good concrete thing precisely because it is one of the construct phrases you already know.

Spot the construct

Which of these Hebrew items is built by joining TWO nouns to make one idea?

• קונצרט צדקה
• מתנדב
• לעשן
• שוויון

Organise a charity event

Put these stages of organising a charity concert into a sensible order. The Hebrew words you need are the ones from this topic.

• Choose the cause the money will go to
• Find volunteers willing to give their time
• Book a place and a date for the concert
• Tell people about it so they come
• Hold the concert and donate what is raised

Talking about volunteering

The topic comes up in the general conversation part of the speaking exam. Work through it.

• You are asked what young people can do to help. You know the nouns but freeze on a verb. What do you do?
• You have named two ways of helping. The examiner waits. What adds most for the least effort?
• The examiner moves to healthy living. How do you handle the change?

Your turn: an issue you care about

Write a short paragraph about helping others or about healthy living, using the vocabulary and the structures from this topic.

• Name one way of helping others, using a verb from this topic in Hebrew script
• Use the "one must" structure with an infinitive at least once
• Include one word from the health half of the topic
• Include one of the two-noun phrases from this topic, and say in English what its two parts mean