Яков Аракин - Практический курс английского языка 2 курс

кухней, англичанин не станет имитировать ее у себя дома. На редкость законопослушный

народ они обожают читать о преступлениях и насилиях. Являя собой воплощение

конформизма, они в то же время заядлые индивидуалисты, и среди них полно эксцентриков.

Все эти парадоксы, к которым, пожалуй, следует добавить еще один: при всей своей

парадоксальности английский характер редко бывает загадочным и непредсказуемым.

Генри. Стил Коммаыджер (США), Британия глазами американцев. 1974

Я не пытаюсь утверждать, будто англичане никогда не менялись. Перемены происходят

всегда. Но эти различия, столь заметные внешне, не проникают вглубь, до корней. К лучшему

или к худшему, исконные черты английской натуры по-прежнему остаются неким общим

знаменателем, оказывают глубокое влияние на национальный характер и общий стиль жизни.

Джон Б. Пристли (Англия), Англичане, 1973

XVI, Comment on the following proverbs and sayings. (Explain their meaning,

give their Russian equivalents.):

East or West, home is best.

There is no place like home.

So many countries, so many customs.

When at Rome, do as the Romans do.

Rome was not built in a day.

To carry coals to Newcastle.

ХVII. Read the following passage and a) discuss it in detail; b) give a short

summary of the passage; c) comment on the following:

the beauty of Britain as the author sees it;

the variety of geographical features;

a happy compromise between Nature and Man.

We live in one of the most beautiful islands in the world. This is a fact we are always

forgetting. When beautiful islands are mentioned we think of Trinidad67 and Tahiti.68 These are fine, romantic places, but they are not really as exquisitely beautiful as our own Britain. Before the mines

and factories came, and long before we went from bad to worse with our arterial roads and petrol

stations and horrible brick bungalows, this country must have been an enchantment. Even now, after

we have been busy for so long flinging mud at this fair pale face, the enchantment still remains.

Sometimes I doubt if we deserve to possess it. There can be few parts of the world in which

commercial greed and public indifference have combined to do more damage than they have here.

The process continues. It is still too often assumed that any enterprising fellow after quick profits has

a perfect right to destroy a loveliness that is the heritage of the whole community.

The beauty of our country is as hard to define as it is easy to enjoy. Remembering other and

larger countries we see at once that one of its charms is that it is immensely varied within a small

compass. We have here no vast mountain ranges, no illimitable plains. But we have superb variety. A

great deal of everything is packed into little space. I suspect that we are always faintly conscious of

the fact that this is a smallish island, with the sea always round the corner, We know that everything

67 Trinidad;an island in the Atlantic, to the north-east of South America

68 Tahiti:an island in the Pacific

has to be neatly packed into a small space. Nature, we feel, has carefully adjusted things —

mountains, plains, rivers, lakes to the scale of the island itself. A mountain 12,000 feet high would be

a horrible monster here, as wrong as a plain 400 miles long, a river as broad as the Mississippi;

Though the geographical features of this island are comparatively small, and there is astonishing

variety almost everywhere, that does not mean that our mountains are not mountains, our plains not

plains.

Our children and their children after them must live in a beautiful country. It must be a

country happily compromising between Nature and Man, blending what was best, worth retaining

from the past with what best represents the spirit of our own age, a country rich in noble towns as it

is in trees, birds, and wild flowers.

(From

"The

Beauty of Britain" by J. В. Priestley)

XVIII. Role-playing:

Mr. Nice, a lecturer, in his early forties. His topic:

"Don't Spoil Nature".

T h e a u d i e n c e :

Alex, a sceptically-minded young man of 21, a student of

Geography; Miss Dorothy Peach, an ardent lover of nature, age 73;

Mr. Frederick Healey, a journalist work ing on a popular newspaper, middle-aged.

R e s t o f c l a s s : make offers and suggestions relating to the problem.

Don't Spoll Nature

Both in densely and in thinly populated countries the authorities make regulations and give

hints to would-be tourists to protect the countryside from pollution.

Here's what the Tourist Office of Finland advises would be visitors: While you are enjoying

the uniqueness of the Finnish landscape, the forests, the lakes, the rivers, the seas, the wild life and

vegetation, you should obey the unwritten laws of nature. Sheer carelessness and thoughtlessness

can cause great damage. As you travel about, please remember you are a guest in the Finnish

countryside.

It is forbidden to break off branches of trees and bushes. Picking flowers (except protected

species) is allowed. When you travel by car please avoid throwing litter and rubbish about. Put it in

plastic bags and take it to the next place where waste is collected. In Lapland, the beauty of the

landscape is extremely fragile and easily damaged. Remember that it can take over 200 years for the

tracks left by your car to disappear.

Although it may be tempting to drive over moors of Lapland you must always keep to the

roads. Because the climate in Lapland is so cold, metal glass and plastic waste remain unchanged for

centuries.

S u g g e s t e d p h r a s e s : Right, can we begin, then, do you think? Can you all

hear me at the back! Good, that's fine . I'm going to talk about: as you know; anyhow. — I'd just like

to run through the main points... The first thing of course, is... And on top of that ... Now has anybody

got any points he'd like to raise? Now, that's a good question. The thing here is — er we've thought a

lot about this one. I think that's it then. Thanks very much for your attention.

XIX. Film "Mr. Brown's Holiday". Film Segment 7 "How do I Get to...?"

(Sallsbury), a) Watch and lislen, b) Do the exercises from the film.

STUDIES OF WRITTEN ENGLISH

VII

In its broadest sense any meaningful piece of written prose marked for its unity, content and

message may be called a composition, that is a unit of written communication involving a writer, a

message and a reader.

Between the sentence and the whole composition stands the paragraph. It is a composition in