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Analyze the usage of the following synonyms.Содержание книги
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АСТРАХАНСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ТЕХНИЧЕСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ
Кафедра ИЯГЕНО
МЕТОДИЧЕСКИЕ УКАЗАНИЯ для работы над лексикой по дисциплине «Практический курс английского языка (практика речи)» для слушателей программы дополнительной к высшему образованию квалификации «Переводчик в сфере профессиональной коммуникации»
АСТРАХАНЬ 2005 Составитель: старший преподаватель кафедры ИЯГЕНО Панюшкина Н.В. Рецензент: профессор, д. ф. н. Дроздова Т.В.
Пояснительная записка Данное методическое пособие предназначено для углубленного изучения современного английского языка слушателями программы дополнительной к высшему образованию квалификации «Переводчик в сфере профессиональной коммуникации». Его основной задачей является создание базы для равноценного овладения обучающимися всеми аспектами языка. В предлагаемом пособии введены следующие разговорные темы: 1) Appearance; 2) Character and disposition; 3) Family life; 4) Parents and children; 5) Friends and friendship; 6) Customs and traditions; 7) Choosing a career; 8) Crime and punishment; 9) Man and Arts; 10) Women and their role in the society; 11) Mass Media; 12) Man and Nature Пособие построено на базе отечественных и зарубежных пособий по английскому языку и материалов, представленных в международной сети Internet, в нем широко используются реалии сегодняшнего дня Великобритании и США.
CONTENTS
UNIT 1. APPEARANCE. TOPICAL VOCABULARY. General appearance
Height/ statue
Build/ shape
Features
Hair
Face
Facial expressions
Chin
Lips
Smile
Complexion/ skin
Analyze the usage of the following synonyms.
Make up short dialogues using these descriptions. a) Our grandmother is over 60 but she is still an energetic and attractive person. It is only now that she is beginning to show signs of old age – her hair has started to go grey and her skin is dry. b) My elder brother is 23. He is of medium height and build, a bit stocky, but strong with it. He has long straight shoulder-length hair and doesn’t want to get it cut. It’s fashionable in Britain at the moment for men to grow their hair. Usually he wears a comfortable T-shirt and jeans. He doesn’t care much what he looks like. c) My friend is a pretty girl of 25. She is thin, slender and stylish. She has got lovely dark hair and looks like a teenager. d) She was not pretty, but she had an amusing face, with a little tilted nose, a wide mouth and greenish blue eyes; her brown hair was simply done. She was very thin and her chest was almost as flat as a boy’s. e) Tom is very tall, he towers above me even though he is only 15. He does quite a lot of sport. So he is quite strong and has well-developed muscles. He has straight brown hair, which refuses to lie flat and is always sticking up. f) He’s about 25, medium build and he’s got wavy brown hair, and the last time I saw him he had a bushy moustache. He has been a researcher at the University for three years, so he looks very serious and academic. In fact I’m pretty sure that he wears glasses now. Describe the appearance of each member of your family, using the text as a model. a) My father is tall. He has large hands and his feet are size 45. He has short, dark, curly hair and a small beard. His arms, legs and chest are hairy. He’s a cheerful person and when he laughs, you can see even white teeth. He wears spectacles and you can’t see his eyes, but I know they are steel grey. He’s 43. He usually wears jeans and checked shirts or sweaters. But for work he wears a suit and a tie and looks every inch a teacher. b) My mother is a very different person. She’s short and plumpish. She has small hands and feet. She has long, straight, fair hair. She has dimples and rosy cheeks. She has long eyelashes, which she darkens with mascara. She likes pink nail-varnish, high-heeled shoes and fashionable clothes. Her favourite colours are red and light blue. c) My 20-year-old sister likes to be well-dressed. She uses lots of make-up, is always going to the hairdresser’s and has fantastic hairstyles. She is tall and slim, with slender arms and elegant legs. Her full lips are always red. She’s open-minded and nice. She is married and has a baby. d) My baby-nephew is still just a toddler; he can’t speak yet, but he’s very selfish and he bores me. Get some pictures and describe the people in them (eyes, hair, complexion, nose, shape of face, height, build, etc.) Describe your friends/ groupmates. The others will try to guess which you are describing. Listen to someone describing a person’s face. As you listen, draw the face and then compare the result with your partner. Are there any differences between the two drawings? Loose, wavy brown hair hung to her waist at the back – she had a fringe over her forehead that almost hid her pale blue eyes. The nose – not her best feature – was long but not ugly. She had a regular set of white teeth and was full-lipped. Her round face often looked rather sallow in complexion; she wasn’t very tall or slim, and she walked with slightly-rounded shoulders. 7. A friend of yours is going to get married. Ask him/ her about his/ her fiancé/ fiancée. You want to know how your friend looks like after disease/ a span of time/ holidays/ plastic surgery. Act out a conversation with him/ her. Use your imagination and describe Cleopatra’s (Nephertiti’s) appearance. Do you think our perception of the ideal face and figure has changed with centuries? Why do you think so? Do you think people’s idea of beauty is different in different cultures? Do you think the idea of beauty will be different in 2100? From your experience, do artistic people (i.e. those who play musical instrument, paint, draw, sing, act, dance) have a special physical appearance? If so, what do they usually look like? Reading. Warming-up. - How do men usually look at women (girl)? - Do they start with the head and work down or start with the ankles and work up? Why? - How do women usually look at men?
Checkmate. As she entered the room every eye turned towards her. When admiring a girl some men start with her head and work down. I start with the ankles and work up. She wore black high-heeled velvet shoes and a tight-fitting black dress that stopped high enough above the knees to reveal the most perfectly tapering legs. As my eyes continued their upward sweep they paused to take in her narrow waist and slim athletic figure. But it was the oval face that I found captivating, slightly plumpy lips and the largest blue eyes I’ve ever seen, crowned with a head of thick black short-cut hair that literally shone with lustre. Her entrance was all the more breathtaking, because of the surrounding she had chosen. Heads would have turned at a diplomatic reception, a society cocktail party, even a charity-ball, at a chess tournament.
Discuss the following. - What do you think the girl was doing at the chess tournament? - Can such a girl be a good chess-player? Why? - This is the beginning of the story “Checkmate” by Jeffry Archer. What do you think could happen at the end of the story? - What is the first thing you notice in a person (the dress, the eyes, the figure, the hair)?
Expand the stories. a) My father was forty when he married my mother, who was more than twenty years younger. She was a very beautiful woman and he was a very ugly man. They have been known in the Paris of that day as Beauty and the Beast. My mother was very small, with large brown eyes and hair of rich reddish gold. She had exquisite features, and a lovely skin. She was much admired. My father, on the contrary… b) Mother was a darling. She used to have her hair in a tight bun, and she looked quite fierce, but she wasn’t really. She had smiling eyes and a head of gold. Father was a very quiet man. He always looked distant as though he were lost in his own thoughts… Translate into English. 1.Ты великолепно выглядишь. Ты из отпуска? – Да, я только что вернулась из Сочи. 2.Близнецы очень похожи друг на друга. Я не смогу отличить их. Оба черноглазые, широкоплечие, стройные. 3. У нее правильные черты лица и прекрасные глаза. Но больше всего мне нравятся ее волосы, густые, длинные и волнистые. 4. Мой брат среднего роста, но хорошо сложен. У него хорошие манеры, он очень нравится девушкам. 5. – Ты растишь бороду? – Да, а что? – Я не очень люблю мужчин с бородой. – Ну, о вкусах не спорят. 6. Моей маме за сорок, но она выглядит очень молодо. У нее светлые волосы, карие глаза и красивый цвет лица. Она очень энергичная и улыбчивая. 7. Она не была красавицей, но мужчины редко осознавали это, очарованные ее обаянием. У нее было поразительное лицо с темными ресницами и светло-зелеными глазами. Они светились жизнелюбием, и темные густые брови красиво выделялись на магнолиево-белой коже. 8. Красота, как и богатство, не всегда делает человека счастливым, поэтому лучше не волноваться о том, как ты выглядишь, а попытаться быть интересным человеком. У интересных людей всегда интересные лица, в то время как интересные лица не всегда привлекательны.
Character
Types of character
Traits of character
Characteristics of a man
Disposition/Attitude
Intellectual ability
Other topical terminology
Translate into Russian. 1.It was like her to have deceived this person. 2. He proved to be a fair-weather friend. 3. As I listened to the judge my heart sank into my boots. 4. Your friend is not so simple as he appears. 5. You needn’t be too sure of winning the contest, you may be disappointed. 6. Don’t give me orders in a disagreeable manner. 7. She likes to praise her precious self and to find faults with everybody and everything around. 8. You needn’t be suspicious of people who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others. 9. They say a round chin suggests a very outgoing character. 10. I find it hard to get along with touchy people. 11. The way a person acts depends on his upbringing. 12. People get wiser as they get older. 13. Don’t expect your children to obey you. This is both unfair and unwise. 14. No wisdom like silence. People born at different times of the year have different astrological signs. Do you know your sign? Look at the chart and find the adjectives describing the characteristics of yours. Do you think you are like your sign? Do you agree with the good and the bad points? ARIES (21st March – 20th April): energetic, straightforward, brave, selfish, impatient, quick-tempered. TAURUS (21st April – 21st March): patient, practical, fond of art, stubborn, lazy, fond of money. GEMINI (22nd May – 21st June): clever, amusing, good at languages, unreliable, restless, superficial. CANCER (22nd June – 22nd July): sensitive, cautious, home-loving, too emotional, moody, self-pitying. LEO (23rd July – 22nd August): generous, broad-minded, good organizing, snobbish, fond of power, vain. VIRGO (23rd August – 22nd September): quiet, tidy, independent, fussy, too critical, likely to worry. LIBRA (23rd September – 22nd October): charming, tactful, peace-loving, not decisive, easily influenced, superficial. SCORPIO (23rd October – 22nd November): passionate, determined, clever, jealous, stubborn, secretive. SAGITTARIUS (23rd November – 22nd December): tolerant, sincere, cheerful, tactless, careless, noisy. CAPRICORN (23rd December – 20th January): reliable, careful, patient, inflexible, pessimistic, mean. AQUARIUS (21st January – 18th February): friendly, progressive, idealistic, odd, rebellious, unreliable. PISCES (19th February – 20th March): emotional, sensitive, gentle, vague, easily confused, not practical. Intelligence. What makes one person more intelligent than another? What makes one person a genious, like the brilliant Albert Einstein, and another person a fool? Are people born intelligent, or stupid, or is intelligence the result of where and how you live? These are very old questions and the answer to them is still not clear. We know, however, that just being born with a good mind is not enough. In some ways, the mind is like a leg or an arm muscle. It needs exercise. Mental exercise is particularly important for young children. Many child psychologists think that parents should play with their children more often and give them problems to think about. The children are then more likely to become bright and intelligent. If, on the other hand, children are left alone a great deal with nothing to do they are more likely to become dull and unintelligent. Parents should also be careful what they say to young children. According to some psychologists, if parents are always telling a child that he or she is a fool or an idiot, then the child is more likely to keep doing silly and foolish things. So it is probably better for parents to say very positive things to their children, such as “That was a very clever thing you did” or “You are such a smart child”. What do you think? Are people born intelligent or do they become intelligent with the help of good parents and teachers? Do intelligent people always do well at school or at the University? Why? Speculate on the following. 1. There’s a certain interconnection between a person’s appearance and character. They say, for example, that a very full mouth suggests a very open warm character while tight, compressed thin lips suggest a person who is rather mean and two-faced. 2. The best way to define a person’s character is by observing his behaviour and manners. Actions speak louder than words. 3. “A fair face may hide a foul heart” means that a person might be a chameleon, constantly changing his mood and colour. 4. The character differences between different nationalities can cause wars. Revealing Faces. · SMALL FACE. You don’t enjoy people intruding into your personal life and invading your privacy. Reflective and intelligent, you are a passionate but firm personality, although you find these two traits in conflict at times. A tendency to be cautious means you don’t trust too easily, but you do value a circle of close friends and family members. · OVAL FACE. A good decision-maker, you have strength of character, lots of energy, and usually finish what you start. Affectionate and outgoing by nature, you can be a bit gullible. · SQUARE FACE. You expect a lot from other people, but give as much in return. You’re stubborn, strong-willed and quick to learn, but your staying power runs out when you lose interest. Highly sensitive to criticism, you’re aggressive under pressure. · THIN FACE. You don’t suffer fools gladly and have a great sense of humour. Energetic but able to balance actions with thought, you are not one who follows the crowd. You enjoy competition in the love stakes and opt for a partner who’s companionable as well as attractive. · HEART-SHAPED. Practical rather than a thinker, you have a degree of charm that can be devastating. Your romantic judgement can sometimes let you down, though. You appear placid and cool in most situations, but this hides a quick temper when crossed. Relationship may suffer if your partner can’t live up to your high expectations. · BROAD FACE. A strong sense of your own importance means you like to be taken seriously by friends. You can be kind and sympathetic, but won’t waste it on those you feel don’t deserve it. Affectionate and loving rather than passionate, yours is an energetic and intelligent nature with optimism high on your list of the important things in life. · ROUND FACE. Short and round face shows you’re slightly erratic and romantic. You’re positive about your own aims, generous and an excellent host with close friends. You prefer mental activity to physical and there’s a lazy streak that comes out now and then if you don’t check yourself. TEXT People get on well together because they have similar good points. They do not get on if their bad points annoy others. Aries people get on well with Leos because they’re straightforward and Leos are broadminded. Aries people are very energetic and Leos like organized things so they work well together. Aries are selfish but Leos are generous, so this is not an important problem if Aries remember that Leos are vain and tell them how clever they are. On the other hand, Aries people do not usually get on well with Pisces because Pisces are vague and not very practical. Aries get impatient and lose their tempers. This upsets Pisces people because they are sensitive and gentle and do not like people speaking to them unkindly. Animals have characters too. We think of lions as being proud and fearless and mice as being timid, but we all know animals with individual personalities. Decide on an animal you wish to write about and begin by making brief notes. 1. Give the animal a name and write down briefly what it looks like. 2. List the character traits this animal has, firstly those of its kind and next the special ones of its own. You might decide that it is different from the rest of its kind. 3. Think of an incident that would bring out these character traits in the animal. Decide when and where such an incident could take place. Write a story, choosing a title for it. UNIT 3. FAMILY LIFE TOPICAL VICABULARY
Equality and prejudice
Reactions
1. Study the following characteristics of: a) Wife and husband: tolerant, considerate, faithful, affectionate to wife/husband/children, hard-working, tidy, home-loving, good-looking, rich, thrifty, quiet, well-educated. b) Mother-in-law: willing to baby-sit, attractive, generous, relatively young, well-dressed, rich, good at organizing home, has telephone, has many interests, does not interfere, has other married children, lives nearby. Work in groups of three and four. Decide which of the following statements you agree with and which statements you disagree with. Discuss these with the other members of your group. Be ready to report your discussion to other groups. 1) You should always ask your parents for permission to marry. 2) Children should only leave home after they are married. 3) You should always be ready to help a member of the family. 4) The members of a family should live in the same area so that it is easy for them to visit each other. 5) Old people should be encouraged to stay in old people’s homes rather than with the family. 6) Family life is less important in the modern world than it was in the past. In many women’s magazines there is a column on personal problems where a journalist running this column tries to answer the readers’ letters. Below you’ll find a woman’s letter to Mr Know-It-All and a stereotyped reply to the letter, imitating the kind of “sensible”, inoffensive advice offered in such columns in women’s magazines. a) Read the letter and reply. The expressions in bold type show the ways English people give advice. Note them down. Dear Mr Know-It-All, My father-in-law died about 2 years ago. Of course my mother-in-law was very upset and lonely, so my husband invited her to live with us. I don’t know what to do – I’m going crazy. My mother-in-law and I don’t get along very well. She’s a wonderful person and is very helpful to me in many ways, but she thinks she’s the boss in our home. If I try to discipline the children and tell them that they can’t do something, they go running the their grandmother and she tells them they can do it! My husband and I have no privacy. What’s worse is that she constantly criticizes me to my husband behind my back. I’m afraid this is going to break up our marriage. What should I do? Jean
Dear Jean, Do you think you could bring yourself to ask your mother-in-law to leave? (May be explaining that now the children are growing up and they need more space). If you think that the old lady would then be too lonely don’t you think it would be a good idea at least to ask somebody, probably some of your husband’s relatives, to invite her for a couple of weeks. It would somehow release tension in your family and entertain the old lady. I realize it’s much easier to give advice than really tackle the problem, but if I were you I’d think of some regular house chores that would keep her busy. And, Jean, why don’t you try to show now and then that you appreciate her help. However it is very important for your mother-in-law to feel that she is needed in the house, but let her know that the children are your responsibility. Your husband will no doubt be grateful for your effort and things will turn out for the best I hope. Mr Know-It-All b) Here four people are presented, each of whom has written about a personal problem. Please, write each a letter of advice. 1) A twenty-five-year-old girl, a university graduate. She has met a man who is impatient to marry her, but she wants to finish a year’s post-graduate study first. 2) A twenty-year-old girl who has married a man of thirty. He works too hard and comes home very tired and bad-tempered. 3) A thirty-five-year-old man whose wife is a businesswoman with a very successful carrier. She frequently comes home from work very late because she has meetings. 4) A woman of sixty is a divorcee herself, comes to know that her son-in-law has committed adultery. Her daughter is still unaware of it. 9. Pair work. Below are situations for dialogues where one of the participants is facing some problems in his/her family. The other partner should give him/her some advice. Act out the dialogues using appropriate clichés of giving advice (See Supplement) 1) The wife complains that her husband doesn’t pay enough attention to the children. 2) The husband thinks the seventeen-year-old daughter is too young to go out on dates. The wife disagrees. 3) The wife has a full-time job and is very angry because the husband doesn’t help her around the house. 4) The husband complains about his wife’s mother-in-law interfering in. Solve the problems. 1) Your husband beats you, but with eight children he is your only means of financial support. Your mother comes over to visit you and asks you why you are bruised. What’s your reply? 2) You and your wife have been married for 5 years. You’ve been very happy but lately you’ve begun to feel very attracted towards another woman. Your wife asks you if anything is wrong. What do you say? 3) You are going to call off the engagement. What do you say to your boy/girlfriend? 4) You are a reporter of the Daily Mail Gossip Column. You are going to interview Elizabeth Smith and Richard Brenton, the famous film stars, who got divorced last year but who, according to rumour, are planning to remarry. What questions will you ask? Points to ponder. 1) People should not marry outside their religion, nation, race, class, education. 2) Interracial marriages should be discouraged. 3) Adopted children should know who their natural parents are. 4) There is no such thing as love. 5) Loneliness can be beneficial. 6) Divorce is on the increase in Russia. 7) The heart that once truly loves never forgets. 8) It is the wife who changes for better or worse, not the husband. 9) Premarital sex has undermined one of the primary reasons for marriages. 10) Love cannot be forced. 11) No herb will cure love. 12) Happiness takes no account of time. 14. Group work. Split into two groups: 1) One of the groups has to prepare the role of the interviewers, and write down questions. Each interviewer asks the members of the “ideal family”. The other group represents an “ideal family”, they should allocate the different roles within the group and talk about the personalities, ways of behaviour and ideas of the people in their family and give advice to other families. 2) The “ideal family” is interviewed by different interviewer in turn in front of the class. At the beginning each member of the family introduces either himself or another family member. 3) Since a lot of students’ values and ideas regarding families will have become obvious, they should discuss them afterwards. 15. Role- play the following scene with other members of your group. Each person plays a different role in the family. Make a decision as family group: A mother has just enrolled into evening language classes. She has a lot of studying to do and cannot do all the housework any more. Her husband and two teenaged children want her to be happy, but they are not used to helping with the housework much. However, they do not like TV dinners and dirty clothes. What can they do?
UNIT 4. PARENTS AND CHILDREN TOPICAL VOCABULARY A happy child is
An unhappy problem child is
A happy parent is
Read the text. The Bell Family Charter Housework: All members of the family must do equal share of the housework according to age and ability. A list of duties will be put up each week. Free time: Children and parents have an equal right to free time. Visitors: Children have a right to bring friends home whenever they like. Bedtime: Bedtime will be fixed according to age. Children of 15 may go to bed when they like. Rules for parents: parents must not break promises. Parents must not cancel plans suddenly. Parents must not criticize their children in public. NB. Parents are not always right. a) What is your opinion of the charter? b) What does it imply? c) Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Solve the problems. 1) Your son (daughter) came home from school in low spirits and said that the teacher had been unfair to him (her). What would you do? 2) Your daughter is in her first year at college. She wants to go away for the weekend. Would you permit her? 3) Your mother decided to remarry and invited her friend to dinner. You didn’t like him. What would you do? 4) Your parents are going to divorce. Would you try to prevent the divorce? 5) Your best friend is going to marry a man who is a friend of the family, very nice and intelligent, but old enough to be her father. What would you advise her? The ABC’s of Happiness (by R. Vallet) A spire to reach your potential. B elieve in yourself. C reate a good life. D ream about what you might become. E xercise frequently. F orgive honest mistakes. G lorify the creative spirit. H umour yourself and others. I magine great things. J oyfully live each day. K indly help others. L ove one another. M editate daily. N urture the environment. O rganize for harmonious action. P raise performance well done. Q uestion most things. R egulate your own behaviour. S mile often. T hink rationally. U nderstand yourself. V alue life. W ork for common good. X -ray and carefully examine problems. Y earn to improve. Z estfully pursue happiness. Points to ponder. 1) The childhood shows the man as morning shows the day. 2) Children should be seen and not heard. 3) People over 40 should not have children. 4) Children do not respect their parents enough. 5) At 20 years of age the will reigns, at 30 – the wit, at 40 – the judgement. 6) Some people can grow old with a good grace. 7) He that has no children knows what love is. 8) “Spare the rod and spoil the childhood”, goes the Biblical saying. Role-play. TOPICAL VOCABULARY
Which is the odd word out? a) angry, indignant, irate, acute, furious, acrimonious, wrathful, infuriated; b) reach, achieve, gain, win, lead, succeed, attain, get; c) occurrence, event, case, incident, happening, accident, episode; Answer the questions. - How and by what criteria do men (women) choose friends? - What types of friendship do you know? - How do the issues of power and competition effect friendship? - Can frequent disagreements and arguments result in the break of friendship? - Has your friendship ever been affected by financial problems? - Do you think that men and women can be friends? - Can people of different age be friends? - What do you look for in a friendship? - Do you think it’s necessary for friends to be on a par financially, professionally and otherwise? - Could you live without friends? - Is it wise to keep making new friends? 4. a) Read the text. TEXT Women are friends, I once would have said, when they totally love and support each other and bare to each other the secrets of their souls, and run to help each other, and tell harsh truths to each other when harsh truths must be told. I once would have said that a friend is a friend all the way, but now I believe that’s a narrow point of view. For the friendships I have and friendships a see serve many different functions, meet different needs and range from those as all-the-way as the friendship of the soul sisters mentioned above to that of the most nonchalant and casual playmates. Consider these varieties of friendship: 1) Convenience friends. These are women with whom, if our paths weren’t crossing all the time, we’d have no particular reason to be friends: a next-door neighbour, the mother of one of our children’s closest friend and so on. Convenience friends are convenient indeed. They’ll lend us their cups and silverware for a party. They’ll drive our kids to soccer when we are sick. They’ll take us to pick up our car when we need a lift to the garage. They’ll take even our cats when we go on vacation. As we will for them. But we don’t, with convenience friends, ever come too close or tell too much; we maintain our public face and emotional distance. 2) Special-interest friends. These friendships aren’t intimate, and they needn’t involve kids or silverware or cats. Their value lies in some interest jointly shared. And so we may have an office friend or a yoga friend or a tennis friend or a friend from the women’s Democratic Club. My playmate is a shopping friend, a woman of marvelous taste, a woman who knows exactly where to buy what, and furthermore is a woman who always knows beyond a doubt what one ought to be buying. 3) Historical friends. We all have a friend who has known us since childhood. The years have gone by and we’ve gone separate ways and we’ve little in common now, but we’re still an intimate part of each other’s past. 4) Crossroads friends. Like historical friends, our crossroads friends are important for what was – for the friendship we shared at a crucial, now past, time of life. A time, perhaps, when we roomed in college together; or worked as eager young singles. Crossroads friends forge powerful links, links strong enough to endure with not much more contact than once-a-year letter at Christmas and out of respect for those crossroads years, for those dramas and dreams we once shared, we will always be friends. 5) Men who are friends – I must mention man–woman friendship too. For these friendships can be just as close and as dear as those that we form with women. 6) There are medium friends, and pretty good friends, and very good friends indeed, and these friendships are defined by their level of intimacy and what we reveal at each of these levels. Intimacy is calibrated with care. The best of friends, I still believe, totally love and support and trust each other, and bare to each other the secrets of their souls, and run – no question asked – to help each other, and tell harsh truths to each other when they must be told. But we needn’t agree about everything to tolerate each other’s point of view. To accept without judgement. To give and to take without ever keeping score. And to be there, as I am for them and as they are for me, to comfort our sorrows, to celebrate our joys. b) Examine the specific friendships described in categories 1-5. Solve the problems. 1) Your best friend and you had a major quarrel. You apologized, but he still won’t talk to you. What can you do? 2) Your friend has a really serious problem, and he made you promise not to tell anyone about it. But you feel that you won’t be able to help him without breaking the promise. How will you do? 3) You have a friend who has just become very famous. In what way will it tell on your relations? 4) You used to have a lot of friends before you got married. Your wife/husband objects to some of your old relationships, which are very dear to you. What would you do? 5) You introduced your boyfriend to your group-mate and he took fancy to her. Would you break you relationship with your group-mate? Complete the following. 1) As people grow up, sometimes they*** 2) Women are better prepare for the end of a love affair than for*** 3) They lost contact over the years and now they look like***their friendships. 4) Good friendships are often based on*** 5) Real friends do not *** each other’s success. 6) She couldn’t make *** to the new circumstances. 7) Infuriated, he threw the *** overboard. 8) What do you ***in your friend? 9) Sometimes it’s wise to**between friends and it may***a final break. 10) Love affairs demand a certain degree of*** Points to ponder. 1) Making friends can be as exciting at 50 as it is at 20. 2) Making friends is not easy. 3) The only way to have friends is to be one. 4) Friendship is no more than a mutual flight from boredom. 5) Only childhood friends are true friends. 6) You can never have too many friends.
As you read the text a) Look for the answers to these questions in the text below. - What distinctions can be pointed out between folklore and the formal culture of people? - How and in what situations does folklore manifest itself? - Can you specify different types of folklore as presented in the text below? - What determination can be given to a custom as an example of partly verbal folklore? - When and how can a custom become a festival according to the author of the text? - What true folk customs are associated with the events that are described in the text as those that require “rites of passage”? - What are the anniversary wedding customs that you learned about from the text? The Field of Folklore Folklore comprises the unrecorded traditions of people. The study of folklore records and analyses these traditions because they reveal the common life of the mind below the level of “high” or formal culture, which is recorded by civilizations as learned heritage of their times. Whenever, out of habit or inclination, the folk indulge in songs and dances, in ancient games, the merry-making, to mark the passage of the year or the usual festivities whenever in many callings the knowledge, experience, wisdom, skill, the habits and practices of the past are handed down by example or spoken word, by the older to the new generations, without reference to book, print, or school teacher, then we have folklore in its own perennial domain, at work as ever, alive and shifting, always apt to grasp and assimilate new elements on its way. Folklore comprises creations of people, primitive and civilized. A simple and workable arrangement of folklore may be based on three modes of existence: folklore is either verbal (proverbs, rhymes, myths, legends, folksongs, ballads), partly verbal (superstitions, customs and festivals, folk dances and games) or non-verbal (folk gestures, folk music, folk architecture, handicrafts, folk costumes and foods). Customs involve both verbal and non-verbal elements that are traditionally applied in specific circumstances. But unlike superstitions, true customs do not involve faith in the magical results of such application. Thus, the “custom” that incorporate traditional belief in the supernatural should properly be classified as superstition. A custom is a traditional practice, a mode of individual behaviour or a habit of social life – that is transmitted by word of mouth or imitation, then ingrained by social pressure, common usage and parental authority. When customs are associated with holidays they become calendar customs, and, when such events are celebrated annually by a whole community, they become festivals. Storytelling, ballad-singing, riddle-posing, game and prank playing and the like are all customary acts, for their survival depends on tradition rather than on official control. Celebrations of birthday anniversaries may begin as early as the first year in some families and they may continue through one’s entire life. The loss of “baby teeth” is one of the few other non-holiday occasions in a child’s life when customs are followed. Courtship and engagement begin a new round of customs that lead to a grand final at marriage, the most tradition-regulated personal ceremony in American life. Wedding customs begin with the “shower” often several of them, to emphasize different kinds of needed gifts. Customs of the wedding itself are numerous and largely regulated by tradition. They include the dress of participants, the seating of guests, the choice of attendants, kissing the bride, throwing rice, passing the bride’s shoe around for money, playing pranks on the married couple, and decorating a car. Wedding customs, however rough, are essentially celebration of a happy time. But customs associated with death are generally fraught with suggestions of fear or superstition. From youth to old age, at work and at party, in school and in widening arches of our orbits, from the country with which we identify, we encounter folk traditions, customs, recipes, memories, sayings and allusions that in sum constitute a yearly folklore brew. b) Find in the text the facts the author gives to illustrate the following. 1) Most true folk customs begin when a child is born. 2) In a sense, transmitting folklore is itself a custom. 1) Unlike superstitions, true customs do not involve faith in magical results of their applications. 2. Discuss the following problem questions. 1) The variety of holidays and festivals in all social communities is determined by the diversity of their character. One can talk about international, national, political, cultural, religious, ethic, etc. holidays. Please, give examples of these holidays and say which of them is your favourite and why. 2) The origin of May Day as the international day of working class solidarity can be traced back to the end of the 19th century. After the brutal suppression of demonstrations for the eight hour working day in the US on May 1, 1886, American trade unions and the Socialist International decided in 1889 to hold such demonstrations everywhere. Since then, May Day has been the symbol of the working class unity. Do you happen to know that May Day is not a public holiday in many countries? Can you speak about the attitude to May Day in Russia now? 3) There is no need to deny that the celebrations of the International Women’s Day have acquired new features and developed modern customs in the course of time. Do you approve of these new customs? How will you explain them to your British or American friend emphasizing its difference from Mother’s Day in their countries? 4) National customs and traditions have been historically associated with seasonal changes of the year. The celebration of the magic force of the first day can be seen in the pagan tradition of making the first day of winter, spring, having festivals in honour of natural forces – the Sun, the Moon. Pancake Day (Maslyanitsa) in Russia dates back to the ancient Slavic tradition of saying farewell to winter and welcoming spring by singing, dancing, burning the straw effigy of Maslyanitsa and eating pancakes, which represent little images of the Sun. Do you know about any other folk holidays marking the seasonal changes? What is the role of such holidays in the cultural development of a nation and in securing the continuity of national customs and traditions? 5) Celebrations like Olympic Games, Youth Festivals, Neighbourhood Festivals, Russian Winter festival, etc. have appeared only recently. Some of them have obviously roots in the cultural heritage of the peoples, others emphasize the modern problems and aims. What in your opinion is the cultural, political (emotional, moral, psychological, etc.) impact and messages of such new festivals for the younger generation? 6) Some young people refuse to observe the old rituals and have a wedding party considering it a terrible nuisance and a waste of money. What is your idea of celebrating a wedding? Should the old customs and traditions be observed or should it be held in an absolutely new manner? 7) A school- teacher is sure to take part in organizing celebrations of different kinds. What do you think a schoolteacher’s opinion should be on the role holidays, traditions and rituals play in the education and character-shaping of the younger generation? 8) You may remember or know, that decorating a New Year tree was considered to be a superstition in the 20s in Soviet Russia. How do you account for that attitude and what in fact is the meaning of the New Year tree to children and adults? 9) What part do you think the national cuisine plays in the celebration of different holidays and festivals? Can you describe some Russian (or English, French, German, etc.) special dishes associated particularly with celebrations. Group work. Split into small buzz groups of 3-4 and get ready to represent a certain country’s national customs and traditions at an international conference or festival. Do some library research prior to the discussion. Elect the chair- person to conduct and run the conference. Delegate a speaker from a buzz group to take part in making a talk and a panel discussion. Problems for Discussion. 1) The advantages and problems of multinational states for the development of national traditions. 2) The continuity of folk tradition in modern world (pros and cons). Work and employment
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