- •Ethnic groups
- •Languages
- •Religion
- •Exercises
- •I. Pronounce the following words correctly.
- •II. Give the Russian equivalents to the following English words and word combinations.
- •III. Give the English equivalents to the following Russian words and word combinations.
- •IV. Explain the following in English.
- •V. Complete the following table.
- •VII. Look at the head-line of the article and say what it is going to be about. Read the article and give your opinion on the issue using the questions given below.
- •VIII. Listen to the disc and do the following exercises.
- •Answer the questions.
- •Express your opinion on the issue.
- •2. People (part I)
- •Introduction
- •Views of Britain The official view
- •The people’s view
- •Exercises
- •I. Give the English equivalents to the following Russian words and word combinations.
- •VII. Comment on the following author’s statements.
- •VIII. Answer the questions.
- •IX. Read all the texts one more time and render their general contents in several sentences.
- •X. Read the text and list all the problems it deals with. The Telegraph
- •Ten core values of the British identity
- •Эти странные англичане Как, по их мнению, к ним относятся другие
- •Как их воспринимают на самом деле
- •Эти странные шотландцы «Извечный враг»
- •Какими они хотят казаться
- •People (part II) a foreigner view of the British
- •Exercises
- •I. Pronounce the following words correctly.
- •II. Give the Russian equivalents to the following English words and word combinations.
- •IV. Answer the questions.
- •Issues to be discussed.
- •VI. Make up a dialogue on the topic under review imagining that.
- •VII. Listen to the following piece of information of a person, who was born in Northern Ireland and now lives in England and do the following exercises.
- •Answer the following questions.
- •Make up a list of issues on which the Irish and the English have different points of view.
- •VIII. Comment on the newspaper article “White Britons will be outnumbered by 2066 if the rate of immigration continues, researchers have claimed” given below.
- •White Britons will be outnumbered by 2066 if the rate of immigration continues, researchers have claimed
- •3. The family Family structure
- •Working mothers
- •Young people
- •Exercises
- •VI. What would you do if you encountered such a situation?
- •VII. Analyze this table and say at what age in Russia you can do the following.
- •VIII. Read an extract from the book “Britain Now” and take part in discussing of the following issues. Family life in the past
- •4. Leisure Spare Time
- •How People Relax
- •Reading
- •Exercises
- •I. Pronounce the following words correctly.
- •II. Translate the following sentences into Russian and say what lexis from the texts under consideration is used in those sentences.
- •III. Search the text for the words similar in meanings to the ones given below.
- •IV. Search the text for the words opposite in meanings to the ones given below.
- •V. Ask your group-mates questions about leisure time in Britain and in Russia using the suggested words and word combinations from the texts above.
- •VI. Prepare a short talk on places and activities, which help you to have a rest with your friends or members of the family.
- •VIII. Comment on the following article from “Britain Explored”.
- •Gаmbliпg
- •IX. Scan the text for the information that will help you to answer the questions given after the text. Sports and recreation
- •X. Compose dialogues on the following topics.
- •XI. Discuss it with your group-mates.
VII. Analyze this table and say at what age in Russia you can do the following.
AGES YOU CAN LEGALLY DO THINGS IN BRITAIN |
|
Leave school Ride a small motorbike Buy cigarettes Get married (with parents’ consent) Drive a car Buy alcohol Vote Get married (with parents’ consent) |
16 16 16 16 17 18 18 18 |
VIII. Read an extract from the book “Britain Now” and take part in discussing of the following issues. Family life in the past
Many people think there was once a golden age, in which the world was filled with happy families. The mother ran the house and the father went out to work to bring back enough money for this ideal family to live its life. The family – mother, father and three or four healthy, happy children – would go out for an occasional treat. Roles were very clear for the parents and children. Discipline within the family unit was strong and moral standards were high. This image is the kind of family life people mean when they talk about 'Victorian values'.
From Britain Now by C. Addis, 1994.
(page 29)
1. Do you consider these ideal families really to have existed?
2. Are there many families nowadays in Britain or in your own country, in which the real bread-winner is a man?
3. What should be done by the couples in order to create such an ideal
family?
VIII. Listen to the following interview of a teacher and mother of three young children and do the following assignments.
Choose the right answer.
The speaker worked as a teacher in …
a) Glasgow
London
Liverpool
All in all she spent with her children …
5 years
8 years
9 years
After her child going to full-time school she thought about …
a) career of a teacher
b) career of a nurse
c) some other career
Now she works at a school for …
deaf children
handicapped children
blind children
She considers her work to be …
dull and hard
hard and interesting
hard and useless
b) Answer the questions.
1. Why did she decide not to work for a long period and devote it to upbringing of her children?
2. What was the reason of choosing such a hard activity?
3. What is one of the greatest difficulties in upbringing of children according to the speaker?
4. Do mothers having many children need any back-up help with friends or relatives?
5. Is it easy for women with children to be in full-employment?
6. Does the speaker in fact feel herself to be a happy mother? Prove it.
c) Discuss the following issues with your group-mates.
A happy family for me is …
a) the family with many children
b) the family with great welfare
c) the family in which everybody tries to understand and help each other
4. Leisure Spare Time
British people now have more free time and holidays than they did thirty years ago. The average number of working hours has fallen and by the mid-1990 almost all full-time manual employees were entitled to four weeks’ holiday or more, in addition to public holidays including Christmas and Easter. Although for some people there was more leisure time (for the increasing number of pensioners for example), in general the pace of life became busier in Britain in the 1990s.
Typical popular pastimes in the UK include shopping, listening to pop music, going to pubs, playing and watching sport, going on holidays, doing outdoor activities and watching TV. The number of people, playing sports has risen, partly due to the availability of more sporting facilities such as local leisure centres. As more people become aware of the necessity of exercise, it is estimated, that one third of the adult population regularly takes part in outdoor sport and about a quarter in indoor sports. Among the most popular sporting activities are walking, swimming, snooker and darts; fishing is the most popular country sport. Football, cricket, horse racing and motor sports are all popular spectator sports. Many magazines are published, which relate to popular and minority sports and interests.
Multi-screen cinemas have become more common and the number of people, going to the cinema, increased in the mid-1980s. This was despite a large increase in the popularity of home videos: Britain has one of the highest rates of home video ownership in the world.
Pubs are an important part of British social life (more than
restaurants) and more money is spent on drinking than on any other form of leisure activity. Holidays are the next major leisure cost, followed by television, radio, musical instruments and eating out.
If they have enough money people travel more, usually by car or by air, and they take more holidays. The numbers going abroad increased from 7 million in the early 1970s to 32 million in the early 2000s, with Spain still the most popular foreign destination.