Английский язык для студентов университетов. Чтение, письменная и устная практика (стр. 4 из 42)
* 5.5'11''' — five and a half feet, eleven inches.
6. Professional male, 24, tall, cheerful, presentable, solvent seeks female for caring and lasting relationship.
Exercise 22
Make up dialogues discussing the following problems:
1. Teenage marriage.
2. Leadership in the family.
3. Marriage contracts and romantic love.
4. Divorce and one-parent families.
5. A white wedding or no wedding?
You can start your dialogues with the following expressions:
Would you agree that...
Do you think it's right to say that...
Ask your classmates to explain their point of view more precisely by saying:
I didn't quite follow what you were saying about ...
I don't quite see what you are getting at, I am afraid.
If you need to rephrase your own statement, say:
Let me put it another way.
Sorry, let me explain.
That's not quite what I meant.
Exercise 23
Look at the excerpts from some letters to friends and imagine how they can be finished.
Exercise 24
Match the English idioms in the left column with their Russian equivalents in the right column. Use them in a proper context.
1. a maiden name А. маменькин сынок
2. extremes meetВ. быть под каблуком
3. a mother's boyС. с глаз долой, из сердца вон
4. to be out of hand D. строить глазки
5. to be under smb.'s thumbЕ. блудный сын
6. out of sight, out of mindF. плоть и кровь
7. to make eyes at smb.G. жить как кошка с собакой
8. the prodigal sonН. отбиться от рук
9. one's own flesh and bloodI. девичья фамилия
10. to lead a cat and a dog lifeJ. противоположности сходятся
Exercise 25
Explain the meanings of the proverbs given below. Make up five-sentence stories of your own to highlight their meanings.
1. Marriages arc made in heaven.
2. Faint heart never won a fair maiden.
3. Birds of a feather flock together.
5. Every family has a skeleton in the cupboard.
6. Spare the rod and spoil the child.
7. When children stand still they have done some ill.
8. Like father like son.
9. A good husband makes a good wife.
10. He that would the daughter win, must with the mother first begin.
11. A tree is known by its fruit.
Exercise 26
Translate the following quotations and comment upon them.
'Though women are angels, yet wedlock is the devil.'
George Gordon Byron
'The dread of loneliness is greater than the fear of bondage, so we get married.'
Cyril Connolty
'Every woman should many — and no man.'
Benjamin Disraeli
'Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut after.'
Benjamin Franklin
'A man should be taller, older, heavier, uglier, and hoarser than his wife.'
Edgar Watson Howe
'Marrying a man is like buying something you've been admiring for a long time in a shop window. You may love it when you get it home, but it does not always go with everything else in the house.'
Jean Kerr
'An ideal wife is any woman who has an ideal husband.'
Booth Tarkington
Exercise 27
Role-Play "Handing in Marriage Advertisements".
Setting: The office of the "Lonely Hearts Column" of a popular magazine.
Situation: Diferent people come to the office and leave their advertisements. The journalists give advice on how to write an advertisement for the acquaintance service.
Characters:
Card I — Amanda, a 16 year-old girl who wants to get acquainted with a "blue-eyed prince" or a pop star.
Card II — Miranda, the girl's older female friend who tries to talk her out of writing the advertisement.
Card III — Belinda, a middle-aged woman who is a frequenter of the "Lonely Hearts Column" because her expectations of the financial position of her prospective fiance are too high.
Card IV — Donald, a very shy young man.
Card V — Ronald, an old bachelor.
Card VI — Archibald, a divorcee with 3 children.
Card VII—VIII — Millard and Lynda, a couple who are happily married thanks to the "Lonely Hearts Column" and who came to thank the journalist for his/her help and to share the news that they are expecting a baby.
Card IX—X — Harold and Brenda, a young man and a young woman who fall in love at first sight and decide to get married. They wish to publish the announcement of their wedding instead of the advertisements which they have brought to the magazine.
Card XI—XII — the journalist who give advice on writing marriage advertisements.*
* Cards with roles are handed out to the students. The students are supposed to think of the details of the dialogues in the role-play they are going to enact.
WRITING
Exercise 1
Prepare to write a dictation. Learn the spelling of the italicized words from Introductory Reading and the words from exercise 1 on page 15.
Exercise 2
Prepare a written translation of the following text:
По мнению многих сегодняшних мужчин, идеальная жена должна обладать следующими качествами: хозяйственностью, верностью, внешней привлекательностью, добротой, снисходительностью, опрятностью. А как должен вести себя обходительный муж? Вот некоторые из современных правил этикета.
1. Муж должен подавать пальто жене, причем как дома, так и в общественном месте.
2. Муж не должен читать во время еды за общим столом.
3. Вопреки взглядам, что обычай целовать женщине руку устарел, жене в порядке исключения можно и даже нужно целовать руку.
4. На дружеской вечеринке первый танец принадлежит жене. Отступить от этого правила можно лишь в исключительных случаях.
5. Муж должен всегда обращать внимание на новое платье жены, говорить ей по этому поводу что-нибудь приятное и вообще не скупиться на комплименты.
6. Муж должен делать жене подарки даже без особого повода, преподносить ей время от времени цветы.
7. Муж не должен заглядываться на других женщин в присутствии жены.
8. Муж не должен ходить по квартире неопрятно одетым.
9. Муж должен благодарить жену за вкусный обед.
10. Муж должен иногда спрашивать жену, что она сделала в его отсутствие, в общем, разговаривать с женой не только о делах. Но, как сказал один старик, если жена не разговаривает с вами весь выходной, значит, ей есть что сказать.
(из "Литературной Газеты ")
Exercise 3
Write a composition on one of the following topics. Discuss your compositions in class.
1. Families with Many Children Versus Families with One Child.
2. The Effect of Divorce on Children.
3. Grandparents. A Blessing or a Burden?
4. How to Bridge the Generation Gap.
5. The Ideal Family of the Future.
Note:
In England the practice of setting out written work varies considerably, but college and university students are expected to present their written works neatly and in accordance with certain basic standards.
Students draw a margin on the left-hand side of each page, about three centimetres wide usually in pencil. The margin is left free for the teacher's marking.
The date is usually written in the top right-hand comer, and often underlined. If the day of the week is included, it is always put at the beginning (e.g. 1 September, 1999 or: Monday, 1st. September).
The title of the composition is usually written in the middle of the page, often on the line below the date. Sometimes it is put on the left, against the margin. The first word of a heading and all the following words except articles and prepositions should be written with a capital letter.
Each paragraph should be indented, which means that it should begin a little way in from the margin.
Present your composition in the following form.
INTRODUCTORY READING AND TALK
Home, sweet home. It does not matter what your home is like — a country mansion, a more modest detached or semi-detached house, a flat in a block of flats or even a room in a communal flat. Anyway, it is the place where you once move in and start to furnish and decorate it to your own taste. It becomes your second "ego".
Your second "ego" is very big and disquieting if you have a house. There is enough space for everything: a hall, a kitchen with an adjacent dining-room, a living-room or a lounge, a couple of bedrooms and closets (storerooms), a toilet and a bathroom. You can walk slowly around the house thinking what else you can do to renovate it. In the hall you cast a glance at the coatrack and a chest of drawers for shoes. Probably, nothing needs to be changed here.
You come to the kitchen: kitchen furniture, kitchen utensils, a refridgerator (fridge) with a freezer, a dishdrainer, an electric or gas cooker with an oven. Maybe, it needs a cooker hood?
The dining-room is lovely. A big dining table with chairs in the centre, a cupboard with tea sets and dinner sets. There is enough place to keep all cutlery and crockery in. You know pretty well where things go.
The spacious living-room is the heart of the house. It is the place where you can have a chance to see the rest of your family. They come in the evening to sit around the coffee table in soft armchairs and on the sofa. You look at the wall units, stuffed with china, crystal and books. Some place is left for a stereo system and a TVset. A fireplace and houseplants make the living-room really cosy.
Your bedroom is your private area though most bedrooms are alike: a single or a double bed, a wardrobe, one or two bedside tables and a dressing-table.
You look inside the bathroom: a sink, hot and cold taps and a bath. There is nothing to see in the toilet except a flush-toilet.
You are quite satisfied with what you have seen, but still doubt disturbs you: 'Is there anything to change?' Yes! The walls of the rooms should be papered, and in the bathroom and toilet — tiled! Instead of linoleum there should be parquet floors. Instead of patterned curtains it is better to put darker plain ones, so that they might not show the dirt. You do it all, but doubt does not leave you. Then you start moving the furniture around in the bedroom, because the dressing-table blocks out the light. You are ready to give a sigh of relief, but... suddenly find out that the lounge is too crammed up with furniture.
Those who live in one-room or two-room flats may feel pity for those who live in houses. They do not have such problems. At the same time they have a lot of privileges: central heating, running water, a refuse-chute and... nice neighbours who like to play music at midnight. Owners of small flats are happy to have small problems and they love their homes no less than those who live in three-storeyed palaces. Home, sweet home.
1. What category of owners does your family belong to?
2. Say what else one can see In a hall, a kitchen, a dining room, a lounge, a bedroom.
3. Look at the plan of a flat and decide how you would arrange it. Discuss with the classmates what you would buy to furnish it. Make use of the phrases below:
Let's ... in the middle
What about putting ... in the far end of the room
What do you think of... in the right corner by ...
I think we should ... in the left comer at...
Shall we ... on the right
Perhaps the best thing would be to ... on the left
Everybody puts ... beside
Well, couldn't we ... near
Why don't we ... (just) opposite
4. Do you have a room of your own? Is there anything special about it?
○ TEXT
Clara in the Denhams' House.
(Extract from the book by Margaret Drabble "Jerusalem the Golden ". Abridged)
The Denhams' house was semi-detached. It was a large, tall, four-storeyed building, on one of the steep hillsides of Highgate. In front of the building was a large paved courtyard. It was separated from the pavement by a high, elaborate, wrought iron fence,1 the gate of which stood open.
The door of the Denhams' house was painted black, and it was solid, and heavily panelled,2 in the centre of the middle panel there was a lion's head with a brass ring in its mouth. There was also a bell, and Clara chose the bell. The door was opened by a thin, brown, balding, youngish looking man.
'I've come to see Clelia,' said Clara, standing on the doorstep. The man gulped nervously, and nodded, and said, 'Clelia, oh yes, Clelia, just a moment, I'll go and get her.'3
And he disappeared. Clara, uninvited, thought she might as well step in, so she did. The hall into which she stepped wasnot a hall at all, but a large and very high room, with doors leading off it in most directions, and it was so full of unexpected things that she found it hard to know where to look first.
The floor was tiled, in diagonal squares of grey and white marble, and the walls were so densely covered with pictures and looking glasses that it was hard to tell whether or how they were papered, but the general tone and impression was of a deep purple and red. At the far end of the hall there was a marble fireplace, and under it was a large pot of dying flowers. There was also, she vaguely noted, in one corner a piano, and the windows had shutters of a kind that she had never seen in England.
After a while, Clelia appeared, from one of the doors at the far end of the hall.
'Well, I came,' Clara said.
'So I see,' said Clelia. 'I'm glad you came. Let's go up into my room.'
'Who was that that let me in?' said Clara, following Clelia meekly up the staircase, and up and up, to the second floor.
'That was Martin,' said Clelia. 'He's rather lovely, don't you think?' Clara could not think of any scheme in which the man she had just seen could have been described as lovely, but she instantly invented one.4
'Yes,' she said.
'And this,' said Clelia, suddenly throwing open a high white door, 'is my room.'
And she said it with such pride and such display that Clara did not feel at all obliged to conceal the amazement. And it was, by any standards, amazing.
It was a tall, square room, facing towards the back of the house and garden. The room's function — for it was, beneath all, a bedroom — was all but concealed.5 Clara, when she looked hard, could just descry a bed, almost lost beneath a grey and pink flowered cover, a heap of books, and a large half-painted canvas. There were a good many books in the room; one wall was lined with them, and they lay in heaps on chairs and on the floor. There were photographs and postcards and letters pinned up and pasted on tables and walls, and amongst these more adult decorations, there was also a great quantity of carefully arranged and ancient toys. Clara was staggered and bewitched, she had never in her life seen anything like it.