Т. И. Петрова, Г. А. Суровнева

ЛЕКСИЧЕСКИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ ПО

БАЗОВЫМ АСПЕКТАМ РАЗГОВОРНОЙ РЕЧИ

Практикум

По курсу

«Английский язык»

Смоленск 2012

 

 

УДК 4И (Англ.) (07)

П- 69

 

Утверждено учебно-методическим Советом филиала МЭИ в г. Смоленске в качестве

учебно-практического издания для студентов всех специальностей неязыковых вузов

Подготовлено на кафедре иностранных языков

 

Рецензент

Зав. кафедрой ин. языков Смоленского института экономики СПб Академии управлении и экономики, кандидат педагогических наук М.А. Давыдкина

 

С-23	Волкова, И.В. Лексический материал по базовым аспектам разговорной речи. Практикум по курсу «Английский язык» [Текст]: практикум / И.В. Волкова, Н.В. Макерова, Т.И. Петрова, Г.А. Суровнева. – Смоленск: РИО филиала МЭИ в г. Смоленске, 2012. – 112 с.
Предназначено для студентов всех специальностей неязыковых вузов.
© Филиал МЭИ в г. Смоленске, 2012.

 

CONTENTS

 

PART I. HOT ISSUES UNIT 1. GLOBAL LANGUAGE LEARNING
Text 1. Some Facts about English
Text 2. The Future of English
Text 3. To Learn or not to Learn Foreign Languages?
Text 4. A Language Teacher’s Personal Opinion
Text 5. Divided by a Common Language
UNIT 2. PERSONALITY AND FAMILY ITEMS
Text 1. Appearance: Beauty and Parts of the Face
Text 2. How Good Looks Can Guarantee Lifetime of Opportunity
Text 3. Age and Average Age
Text 4. Personal Quality Meter
Text 5. My Hobbies and Interests
Text 6. My Working Day
Text 7. My Flat
Text 8. Steve Jobs: Apple’s Creative Genuis
Text 9. Tom Cruise: Long Way to the Top
Text 10. Michael Jackson: the King of Pop
Text 11. Family Relationships
Text 12. British Family Life
Text 13. Generation Gap
Text 14. Sibling Rivalry
Text 15. My Family and Me
UNIT 3. EDUCATION AS IT IS
Text 1. The School System in Great Britain
Text 2. Private Education in Great Britain
Text 3. Higher Education in Great Britain
Text 4. Oxbridge
Text 5. The Open University
Text 6. Education in the USA
Text 7. American Private Universities
Text 8. Going to College in the USA
Text 9. An American View on Russian Education
Text 10. Education in Russia
Text 11. Types of Higher Education Institutions in Russia
Text 12. Moscow State University
Text 13. History of Technical Education in Russia
Text 14. National Research University
Text 15. How to Cope with Exams
PART II. WORLD AROUND UNIT 1. GREAT BRITAIN
Text 1. When in Britain…
Text 2. Amazing Facts about Great Britain
Text 3. Icons of Great Britain
Text 4. How the British Relax
Text 5. How the British Complain
Text 6. The British and the Food
Text 7. British Proverbs and Superstitions
Text 8. Political System of Great Britain
Text 9. British National Customs and Traditions
Text 10. British Holidays, Natable Dates and Festivals
Text 11. Sport and Competition in Britain
Text 12. Four Characters of the British
Text 13. Some Views on the English Character
Text 14. Personal Impressions of London
Text 15. Sights of London
Text 16. Great Britain
UNIT 2. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Text 1. Fantastic Facts about America
Text 2. Funny Facts about American Presidents
Text 3. The Long Road to the White House
Text 4. American Symbols
Text 5. The Values Americans Live By
Text 6. Washington, DC
Text 7. New York
Text 8. Los Angeles
Text 9. Welcome to Chicago
Text 10. Alaska: the Great Land
Text 11. Hawaii: the Pacific Paradise
Text 12. The Silliest American Laws
Text 13. The Independence Day or Happy Birthday, America!
Text 14. Thanksgiving Day
Text 15. The USA
UNIT 3. THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Text 1. Tourism in Russia
Text 2. Seven Wonders of Russia
Text 3. Lake Baikal: the Pearl of Siberia
Text 4. What is Russia Famous For?
Text 5. Russian Character
Text 6. Russians
Text 7. National Symbols of Russia
Text 8. Moscow
Text 9. Foreigners in Moscow
Text 10. St. Petersburg
Text 11. The Russian Federation
Text 12. About Smolensk
Text 13. Museums of Smolensk
Text 14. Churches of Smolensk
Text 15. Smolensk
LITERATURE

 

PART I. HOT ISSUES

UNIT 1. GLOBAL LANGUAGE LEARNING

Learn the following words and word combinations

 

Vocabulary List

conversation разговор	opportunity возможность
dictionary словарь	to get acquainted with знакомиться с
to add добавлять	mentality менталитет
to absorb впитывать, поглощать	toleranceтерпимость
to mix with смешиваться с чем-либо	vulnerable уязвимый, ранимый
communication общение	to sum up обобщать, суммировать
foreign иностранный	fashion мода
society общество	to realize понимать, осознавать
modern современный	reason причина
to require требовать	to waste time тратить время зря
essential основной, важный, неотъемлемый	pleasure удовольствие
demand требование	advertisement реклама
advantage/disadvantage преимущество/недостаток	effort усилие
experience опыт	fluently бегло
access доступ	qualified квалифицированный
ability способность	equivalentэквивалент
negotiations переговоры	pronunciation произношение
efficient эффективный, действенный	confidence уверенность
to travel путешествовать	to enjoy наслаждаться
abroad за границей, за границу	to divide делить

 

 

TEXT 1. Read and translate.

Some Facts about English

 

· There were only 30 000 words in Old English. Modern English has the largest vocabulary in the world – more than 600 000 words.

· There are about 60 000 words in common use.

· About 450-500 words are added to the English vocabulary every year.

· 70 per cent of the English vocabulary are loan words and only 30 per cent of the words are native.

· There are words from 120 languages in English, including Russian.

· The most frequently used words in written English are:

the, of, and, to, a, in, that, is, I, it, for.

· The most frequently used word in conversation is I.

· The longest word in the English language is:

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (a lung disease).

· The commonest letter is «e».

· More words begin with the letter «s» than any other.

· The most overworked word in English is the word set. It has 126 verbal uses and 58 noun uses.

· The newest letters added to the English alphabet are «j» and «v», which are of post-Shakespearean use.

· The sentence «The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog» includes every letter of the English alphabet.

· The words «racecar», «kayak» and «level»can be read the same way in either direction.

· The words «month», «orange», «silver», or «purple» have no rhymes.

· The largest English-language dictionary is the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, with 21 728 pages.

· The commonest English name is Smith. There are about 800 000 people called Smith in England and Wales, and about 1 700 000 in the USA.

TEXT 2. Read and translate. Give a summary of the text.

The Future of English

Geographically, English is the most widespread language on earth, and it is second only to Chinese in number of people who speak it. It is spoken in the British Isles, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and much of Canada and South Africa. That’s about 400 million people.

English is also a second language of another 300 million people living in more than 60 countries. If you add to this the enormous number of people who learn to understand and speak English (like yourself), you will realize that English is indeed a «world language».

In Shakespeare’s time only a few million people spoke English. All of them lived in what is now Great Britain. Through the centuries, as a result of various historical events, English spread throughout the world. Five hundred years ago they didn’t speak English in North America: the American Indians had their own languages. So did the Eskimos in Canada, the aborigines in Australia, and the Maoris in New Zealand. The English arrived and set up their colonies.

Today English is represented in every continent and in the three main oceans – the Atlantic, the Indian and the Pacific.

English is mixing with and marrying other languages around the world. It is probably the most insatiable borrower. There are words from 120 languages in its vocabulary, including Arabic, French, German, Greek, Italian, Russian and Spanish.

Other languages absorb English words too, often giving them new forms and new meanings. So many Japanese, French and Germans mix English words with their mother tongues that the resulting hybrids are called Japlish, Franglais and Denglish. In Japanese, for example, there is a verb Makudonaru, to eat at McDonald’s.

One of the many «Englishes» spoken and written today is Euro-English. Euro-English has its origins in the political arena of the European community.

A century ago, some linguists predicted that one day England, America, Australia and Canada would be speaking different languages. However, with the advent of records, cinema, radio, and television, the two brands of English have even begun to draw back together again. Britons and Americans probably speak more alike today than they did 50 or 60 years ago. In the 1930s and 1940s, for example, American films were dubbed in England. It’s no longer the practice today.

People have long been interested in having one language that could be spoken throughout the world. Such a language would help to increase cultural and economic ties and simplify communication between people. Through the years, at least 600 universal languages have been proposed, including Esperanto. About 10 million people have learned Esperanto since its creation in 1887, but English, according to specialists, has better chances to become a global language. So, why not learn it?