Long live the book!

1 What is a book? Part matter and part spirit; part thing and part thought – however you look at it, it defies definition. It’s outward form, essentially unchanged in nearly 2.000 years, is a design as functional as, say, the pencil or the glove: you can’t improve on it. Yet, by its nature the book is loftier than the common objects of the world. It is a vehicle of learning and enlightenment, an open sesame to countless joys and sorrows. At a touch, our book springs open, and we slip into a silent world – we look forward to visiting foreign countries, discovering hidden treasures, soaring among the stars.

2 The Chinese gave us paper. Phoenicia brought forth our alphabet. To Rome we owe the format of the book; to Germany, the art of printing. Britain and the United states perfected book production. Today, hundreds of thousands finished books roll off high-speed presses in just one hour, and we find hard to visualize the bookless world, hard to imagine the enormous effort that lies behind the saga of the book.

3 In the beginning there was only the spoken word. Then, to entrust his thoughts to a more lasting medium than mere memory, man started drawing pictures representing things. Perhaps, the oldest picture-script originated some 6.000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Its images – bird, ox, ear of barley – were scratched into soft clay tablets, and then baked hard for preservations.

4 But such writing was a cumbersome affair mainly used for keeping priestly documents and public records. What “literature” there was – such a heroic poems – depended almost totally on word-of-mouth transmission. The quick Mediterranean mind, awakening to a new culture, demanded a better way of harnessing the spoken language.

5 Shortly before the 9^th century B.C. the Phoenicians – swift seafarers, sharp traders and good record-keepers began breaking spoken sounds into their bound elements, and shuffling the resulting ‘letters” to form words. Soon the alphabet was seized upon by the Greeks, who gave letter more convenient shapes and ended the still-missing vowels.

6 No sooner had man taught himself to spell than a new problem raised its head. What to write on? Leather, tree bark, leaves and wax tablets had all proved unsatisfactory. In Egypt, for some 2.000 years before year one, text had been inscripted on brittle sheets made from the pitch of a Nile Delta water plant papyrus. Using this material gradually spread through the Mediterranean world. Usually, several papyrus sheets were glued together to form a scroll, that could accommodate a lengthy text. But what a clumsy thing to read!

7 In distant China, tradition has it that a gentleman named Ts’ai Lun, vexed at the wasteful use of costly silk as a writing material, reported to Emperor Ho-Ti that a far cheaper substance could be made by pounding rags, tree bark and old fishing nets into a pulp, skimming thin layers off the top, and drying them. Thus in the year 105 A.D. paper enters our story – to remain, for six centuries, a closely guarded secret of the East. It wasn’t known until some Chinese papermakers were captured by marauding Arabs, and the news spread the world.

8 The next major breakthrough happened in 1439, when a stubbornly determined German craftsman Johann Gutenberg, began experimenting with a substitute for handwriting. If he could cast the letters of the alphabet in re-usable metal type, then arrange them in a mirror pattern into words, lines and columns on an even-surfaced plate, he would be able to run off his “press” as many imprinted books – exact copies of each other, as he wished.

9 Man’s thoughts and dreams, his knowledge and his aspirations are stored in books, wealth to be tapped by all who desire. From the first wobbly picture-script to quicker-than-the eye offset presses, the book has come a long, arduous way, propelled by the genius and persistence of many individuals and nations. Indeed, all humanity has reason to be proud of using a book, for it shows us at our very best. Long live the book.

Задание 2 Найдите в тексте предложения с подчеркнутой

-ing формой (герундием) и сделайте письменный перевод этих предложений.

Задание 3 Письменно ответьте на вопросы по содержанию текста:

1. What definitions of a book are given in the text?

2. What nations contributed into creation of a book?

3. How did an ancient man express his thoughts?

4. How old is the oldest picture-script found in Mesopotamia?

5. What was the first material to scratch the images on?

6. What people created the alphabet? How?

7. What material did people use to write on in Egypt?

8. What is a gentleman named Ts’ai Lun famous for?

9. How long had the secret of making paper been kept by Chinese people?

10. Who revealed their secret?

11. What happened in 1439?

12. What is stored in books?

Задание 4 Заполните пропуски в таблице вновь образованными словами в соответствии с частями речи с помощью приставок или суффиксов.

N	существительное	глагол	прилагательное	наречие
O	satisfaction	satisfy	satisfactory unsatisfactory	-
1		to accommodate
2			wasteful
3	definition
4			silent
5				gradually
6	production
7		to visualize
8	culture
9			proud
10				closely

Задание 5 Прочитайте и переведите на русский язык.

1. On hearing this news he went to see his publisher.

2. Finding your own mistakes will help you improve your work.

3. There is too much talking and laughing in the room.

4. You must stop making so much noise.

5. I do not remember ever having seen such a design.

6. Travelling is the most exciting thing in my life.

7. Have you ever thought of becoming a teacher?

8. Learning a list of new words took me a whole hour.

9. The Chinese started writing on paper in the year 105 A.D.

10. This book is worth reading.

Задание 6 Переведите предложения. Определите, какой частью речи являются подчеркнутые в предложениях слова: герундием, причастием или инфинитивом.

1. Writing the first book took him 15 months.

2. My plan for today is to write an article for a magazine.

3. A good beginning is half the battle.

4. Students beginning to study French say that its phonetics is very difficult.

5. Speaking English is easier than speaking Hindi.

6. My parents always wanted me to be a journalist.

7. I am happy to have learnt the truth.

8. I am looking forward to meeting you at the station.

9. After the lecture Peter suggested going to the cinema.

10. It is never too late to learn.

Задание 7 Найдите причастие 1 или причастие 2 в предложениях и переведите их на русский язык.

1. In the park I saw a young girl standing near the tree and crying.

2. A started letter was lying on the table.

3. The picture hanging on the wall struck me by its beauty.

4. His torn jeans were hanging on the chair.

5. Occupied with his deep thoughts she was walking down the river.

6. His packed baggage was put on the carriage.

7. She used to spend her holidays in the country growing flowers and vegetables.

8. Suddenly I saw somebody screaming.

9. The orchestrants were sitting on the stage playing Bach.

10. At the end of the street they found a deserted house.

Задание 8 Выучите 50 слов по теме “Languages”.

Задание 9 Составьте краткий рассказ (20-25 предложений) на тему «Английский язык в современном мире»

Задание 10 Подберите текст для дополнительного чтения (10 тысяч знаков) и выполните соответствующие задания (см. контр. работу №1, вариант I):