- •Т.В. Поплавская т.А. Сысоева
- •Ббк 81.432.1 – 923.1
- •Contents
- •Introduction
- •3. In what situation would you use the following set expressions? Give your own examples.
- •4. Match the words and their definitions.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the text.
- •2. Use the text to answer the following questions.
- •III. Follow-up activities
- •IV. Additional tasks
- •Violent English
- •A Confluence of Cultures
- •How to Plan a Town
- •2. Use the text to answer the following questions.
- •Bungalows for sale
- •3. Look at the verbs below. Match each one with an appropriate phrase from the list on the right. Use the expressions in contexts of your own.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. The following extracts from guide books describe five of the world’s most famous cities. Work in small groups. Read the descriptions and decide which city is being described in each text.
- •2. Read the extracts again and point out the facts that helped you decide which city is being described.
- •3. Work with a partner and discuss these questions.
- •4. Complete these sentences using appropriate phrases from the text. Make any changes to the phrases that are necessary.
- •5. Look at the adverbial phrases below and decide which of them have negative or limiting meaning.
- •6. Rewrite the sentences below, starting with the word or words given.
- •7. Speak about your plans for the holidays. Use at least ten expressions from Ex. 5 and 6.
- •III. Follow-up activities
- •IV. Additional tasks
- •5. Match the words to make up phrases. Explain their meaning in English.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the following extract from the book.
- •2. Use the text to answer the following questions.
- •3. Read the remaining parts of the book and dwell on the following issues.
- •4. Becky is in the habit of itemizing clothes (her own and other people’s). How does she describe/speak about clothes? Compile “Becky’s clothes and fashion vocabulary”.
- •Shopaholic Abroad
- •I. Vocabulary work
- •1. Study the following words.
- •2. Fill in the gaps with the suitable word from the box. Put the words in the correct form.
- •3. Define the following words and phrases in English. Make up sentences with these words.
- •4. Match the words and their definitions.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the following extract from the book.
- •2. Use the text to answer the following questions.
- •3. Read the remaining parts of the book and dwell on the following issues.
- •Shopaholic Ties the Knot
- •I. Vocabulary work
- •1. Study the following words.
- •2. Match the words and their definitions.
- •3. Fill in the words from the active vocabulary list.
- •4. In what situations would you say the following? Provide your own context for these utterances. Then find them in the text and check their actual usage.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the following extract from the book.
- •2. Use the text to answer the following questions.
- •3. Read the remaining parts of the book and dwell on the following issues.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •2. Read the whole text. Do we have the press we deserve?
- •3. Use the text to answer the following questions.
- •5. Explain how you understand the following idiomatic expressions: to throw out the baby with the bath water, a toothless watchdog, to get a rough ride. In what contexts can you use them?
- •III. Follow-up activities
- •IV. Additional tasks
- •Publican Jailed for Assault
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the text. What is the topic and the implied main idea of paragraphs 6, 7 and 9?
- •2. True or false.
- •3. Select the best answer.
- •4. Discuss the following issue: What is the most important overall message the writer wants the reader to understand about stress?
- •III. Follow-up activities
- •Bill’s Eyes
- •5. Complete each sentence with the appropriate phrase.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •4. Explain the final scene of the story. Were you shocked by it or was it quite predictable? Give your reasons.
- •III. Follow-up activities
- •IV. Additional tasks
- •The Emergency Ward
- •I. Vocabulary work
- •1. Study the following words.
- •2. Choose the best definition of the italicized word.
- •3. Match the words to make up word combinations from the text.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the text.
- •2. Choose the best answer. Explain your choice by providing evidence from the text.
- •3. On the basis of the evidence from the text, mark these statements as accurate inferences, inaccurate inferences or insufficient evidence.
- •III. Follow-up activities
- •IV. Additional tasks
- •Home reading
- •2. Can we call Champagne and Jane opposites? Prove it. Do you believe such opposites could “attract”?
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the required extracts from the book “Can You Keep a Secret?” by s. Kinsella and consider the following questions.
- •2. Agree or disagree: Being stressed out is an excuse for blabbering all your secrets to a complete stranger.
- •4. Look at the expressions in bold in these sentences. Is mind a verb or a noun in each one?
- •5. Match each expression in Ex. 4 with one of these meanings.
- •II.Discussing the text
- •II. Discussing the text
- •3. Comment on the “look-alike” pattern theory. Does it work in real life?
- •II. Tasks for “Man and Boy” by t. Parsons
- •III. Tasks for “Man and Wife” by t. Parsons
- •IV. Tasks for “How to be Good” by n. Hornby
- •Reference
- •Читай и обсуждай Пособие по курсу «Практикум по культуре речевого общения»
2. Use the text to answer the following questions.
1. Is Danny Kovitz a successful designer? How can one be “a fabulous designer, really talented” and “not all that successful” at the same time? Give your reasons.
2. Describe Becky’s flat. Does it come up to British standards?
3. Where does Becky work? Is she satisfied with her present position? Compare it with the job she used to have.
4. Why isn’t Danny stocked at Barneys? What prevents him from reaching this goal?
5. What dress was Danny planning to make for Becky? What did he make in the end? Compare the plan and the result, mentioning as many differences as possible. On what occasion was Becky going to wear the dress?
3. Read the remaining parts of the book and dwell on the following issues.
1. Describe Suze and Tarquin’s wedding ceremony. How did Becky feel during the ceremony? Why was Suze “doing it all wrong” with the bouquet?
2. Did Becky expect that Luke would propose to her? How did she envisage her engagement and married life?
3. Compare Becky’s, her parents’ and Elinor’s plans for the wedding and their ideas about the process of wedding preparations.
4. Why was Becky in two minds about the wedding? Why can’t she tell her parents that she doesn’t fancy a wedding in Oxshott? On the other hand, why didn’t Becky tell Elinor and Robyn she was planning to cancel her New York wedding? Imagine you were in Becky’s shoes. Help her sort out the arguments for and against either variant of her wedding ceremony.
5. Why does Becky feel like a guest at her New York wedding? Was she elated by her “second wedding” and everything her parents had prepared for it? Which wedding did Becky enjoy more? Give your reasons.
4. Consider the issue of choosing a wedding dress. One option for Becky was to wear her mother’s wedding dress. Another option was to buy a posh outfit from Dream Dress. Yet one more option was to rely on Danny and his flair for fashion. Dwell on these three alternatives. Which variant did Becky eventually choose for her wedding and why?
5. Split in two teams and conduct a mini-debate on the topic “A hand-made dress vs. an off the peg dress – which is better?”
6. Dwell on Robyn’s approach to her job. Prove that having a high-powered wedding planner is (is not) worth it.
7. Compare the British and American traditions associated with wedding cakes. Which option would Becky rather go for?
8. Danny claims to be an adherent of “a deconstructive approach to design”. What does it mean? Is Danny being serious when he speaks about fashion and design in this way?
9. Comment on the issue of wedding contracts. Why can’t Becky call her wedding off? What were the terms of her wedding contract? Is there a loophole in her case? Were the recommendations given to Becky by the top-notch lawyer Garson Low worth the money he usually charged?
10. What does Suze mean by saying “It’s a bit late for normality”? Can it really be applied to Becky’s case?
11. Summing up the facts from all the three books of the Shopaholic series, make a list of useless things Becky has bought (such as the cocktail cabinet, a fencing mask, a Linguaphone Italian course etc.). Imagine that you work as a guide in the Museum of Useless Things of the 21st Century, where most of Becky’s pointless purchases are exhibited. Take a group of tourists around the museum.
III. Follow-up activities
1. Agree or disagree: “You cannot succeed if you don’t know the right people”. You can refer to Danny’s case or you can speak about Becky, Robyn, Elinor or Alicia.
2. Work in pairs. Persuade your interlocutor that things shouldn’t be done “by half-measures”. Choose your part: a. Becky is speaking to Danny about his future career; b. Robyn is speaking to Becky about her New York wedding ceremony; c. Elinor is speaking to Becky about her wish to have a wedding ceremony in Oxshott.
3. (a) You are a student taking a cross-cultural studies course. You assignment is to compare British and American wedding ceremonies and preparations for them in terms of cultural peculiarities. Deliver the results of your findings to your class in the form of a report. (b) You are a friend of Becky’s and have attended both of her wedding ceremonies. Share your impressions of them explaining which variant you would rather choose if you were in Becky’s shoes.
Unit 3
The Press
Do We Have the Press We Deserve?
I. Vocabulary work
1. Study the following words.
Salacious, voracious, sibling, delve, ogle, harrowing, hapless, flawed, crass, besmirch, jeopardize, hallmark, gloat, liaison, freelance, muckraking, discreet, harass, fraud, lowbrow, prurient.
2. Insert the following words in the sentences below.
|
hallmark gloat liaison freelance |
muckraking discreet harass fraud |
1. … is a working association or connection.
2. Those gossip columnists really enjoy … .
3. She got a two-year sentence for … .
4. The thief … over the stolen jewels.
5. I feel rather … by all the pressures at the office.
6. She does … translation work for several agencies.
7. It wasn’t very … of you to ring me up at the office.
8. Clear expression is a … of good writing.
3. Match the words and their definitions.
|
flagging
raunchy pompous catch-all recount priggish scoop impetus |
–
– – – – – – – |
characterized by excessive self-esteem or exaggerated dignity, pretentious exaggeratedly proper to top or outmaneuver (a competitor) obscene, lewd, vulgar to narrate the facts or particulars of an impulse declining, weakening something designed to cover a variety of situations or possibilities |
4. Match the adjectives with suitable nouns.
|
front hapless ambitious voracious indelible posh freelance salacious prurient catch-all muckraking gloating salacious lowbrow |
page interest reporting readers dailies press victim press interest neighbours reporters photographers stain law |
5. Fill in the blanks with appropriate prepositions.
1. We … readers are partly to blame … the low standards … which we complain.
2. We are spoiled … choice, though … practice people choose the paper that best reflects personal views.
3. If you can’t affect decisions made … you … high, why worry … them?
4. The question that arises … this theatre … cruelty is why a government that guards its own privacy so jealously … the Official Secrets Act gives its citizenry no legal right … privacy.
5. The editor protested that it would prevent him even … publishing that Mr Browne was … home … bed … a cold.