Приложение 4 пояснительная записка

В современном учебнике В.П. Кузовлева по английскому языку для 8 – 11 классов не хватает тематических текстов, поэтому приходится прибегать к тематическим сборникам и пособиям, таким как «Английский язык для школьников и поступающих в вузы» И.В. Цветковой, «English для абитуриентов и учащихся 9 и 11 классов» А.П. Миньяр-Белоручевой. Но и в этих пособиях нет текстов на многие темы. Я попыталась собрать дополнительные тексты для чтения и обсуждения в старших классах на такие темы, как «Что такое счастье?», «Красота», «Благодарность», «Чувства», «Страхи», «Дом, милый дом», «Сериалы», «Когда мечты осуществляются», «Музыка в моей жизни», «Русская зима» и другие.

Думаю, такие темы привлекут внимание старшеклассников и помогут организовать дискуссию на уроке.

Beauty

Can you see the beauty that surrounds you; listen to music that stirs your soul and makes your feet want to boogie? You should approach the day as if it were an adagio – a melody played in an easy graceful manner. Listen to music that uplifts your spirit. «Beauty» is the only thing worth living for». Let your eyes drink in the beauty that surrounds you. Be grateful for every blade of grass. You have to embrace every moment. Inside you there’s an artist you don’t know about. «Your diamonds are not in far distant mountains or in yonder seas; they are in your own backyard, if you but dig for them».

When was the last time you stargazed? Stargazing is one of the oldest human pastimes and there’s a good reason for it… Find a star to wish upon. Experience the beauty and power of Nature unleashed.

(Russell H.Conwell)

Happiness

We want so much - money, success, recognition, and genuine creative expression. It seems happiness. We share our life with our family, our friends, just people around us. If we adore them we are happy. There are six practical, creative and spiritual principles that make up happiness: gratitude, simplicity, order, harmony, beauty and joy. To be happy is to reflect, to be able to reveal how to spin straw into gold. To be happy is to believe in yourself, to live the most creative, joyous and fulfilling life. To be happy a person should possess inner peace, well-being, a sense of security. The revelation that you have everything you need in life to make you happy is as refreshing as lemonade in a hot afternoon. To experience the moments of happiness take time to slowly arrange a bouquet of flowers in order to appreciate their colors, fragrance and beauty. Sip a cup of tea on the front stoop in the sunshine. Pause for 5 minutes to pet a purring cat. «Happiness is not a possession to be prized. It is a quality of thought, a state of mind. Happiness can be learned. Some people sealing down their expectations of what constitutes the good life, redefining their values, reordering their priorities and accepting the challenge of making a virtue out of necessity. But it’s very easy to surrender to an emotional depression when a financial one occurs. It’s easy to be pessimistic about tomorrow when today seems so bleak. It’s time to discover the secrets of the stars, to sail to an uncharted land, to open up a new heaven, where our spirits can soar. Smile at everyone you meet. Just to be alive is a grand thing. Here is all that is required for the spoiling and pampering of a world-weary person: a fabulous bath, something scrumptious to nibble, something sentimental to conjure up happy memories, something lovely to sip and something delightful to read. Play some soothing music. Learn to make peace with yourself. The thirst after happiness is never extinguished in the heart of any person.

The Russian Winter

Just look out of the window. It’s sunny and frosty. The sun is shining brightly, sparkling on the snowy branches of the trees and bushes. I am looking at the white silvery trees and Alexander Pushkin’s lines come to my mind:

Neath lucid skies of cleanest azure

The winter’s rich and dazzling treasure

Her gorgeous rugs of snow are spread

The wood is etched against them darkly

The firs, rime-starred, are green and sparkling

In shiny mail the stream is clad.

There is nothing like the Russian winter. It is full of poetry and magic. And what Russian doesn’t like a fast ride in a troika! Imagine yourself warmly clothed sitting in a sleigh and fast horses carrying you along a forest road. Leafless trees and evergreen pines and fir-trees with heavy caps of snow decorate the landscape. The golden sun is shining brightly. You are looking at the sky at white silvery trees. You are mesmerized with the beauty of Russian winter, you want to write a poem but there are hardly any words worth describing this magic winter splendor.

When Dreams Come True

One does not discover new lands

without consenting to lose sight

of the shore for a very long time.

Only dreams give birth to change. You possess all the inner wisdom, strength and creativity to make your dreams come true. No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. A person should dream of opening up a new heaven where his spirits can soar.

Most of us often feel tired to choose anything more than what to have for dinner. When the distractions of daily life deplete our energy, the first thing we eliminate is the thing we need the most quiet, reflective time: time to dream, time to think, time to contemplate what’s working and what’s not, so that we can make changes for the better.

Within each of us lies a wellspring of abundance and the seeds of opportunity. For each of us there is a deeply personal dream waiting to be discovered and fulfilled. When we cherish our dream and then invest love, creative energy, perseverance, and passion in ourselves, we’ll achieve an authentic success.

Some of us are still striving, dreaming, and still yearning. Over the years we’ve buried many a precious dream under layers of soot and rubble, layers of good intentions, relinquishment, bitter failures, detours, disappointments, rejections, wrong choices, bad timing, stupid mistakes, unforeseen circumstances, whims of fate and missed opportunities. Try not to be a «would-be-if-I-could-be or a could-be-if-I-would-be». Just be. Remember: you are one with Heaven and Earth.

Soaps

Television has been called «the great wasteland». This is because so much of programming is mindless, tasteless and uninformative. Now whole generations of children have been brought on what is called «the boob tube» or «the idiot box». For many people television has taken the place that literature might have occupied in the past, so that people are less generally informed than they ought to be or think they are.

Millions of people are «hooked» on soaps. The reason for the soaps’ success in winning the teen audience is clear: they offer escapist entertainment featuring young characters with whom young people would like to identify. Teenagers see their lives not just mirrored but exaggerated and made glamorized. The serials provide an escape from the routine of school, family life and homework. They say, «When I’m bored, I come home from school and it’s fun to watch them – they are really exciting and funny or sad and you really get into it. Soap operas are addictive like a drug one has to watch every day. Regular viewers can name all the characters in a given soap and describe their history in detail. A casual observer gets lost in the plot, which has more twists and turns than a mountain highway. Psychologists say that teenagers have a strong emotional involvement with soap characters. The soaps allow them to encounter situations and emotions, i.e. soaps help them test their own feelings and future roles. Soap operas serve as model for situations teens might face.

In the long run, soap operas with all the shortcomings uphold many traditional values. Despite the scandals, the good guys always win in the end and villains repent, die or are banished to prison or a mental hospital. Soap characters cope with illness, death, drug abuse, alcoholism, and wife and child abuse in a way that is positive.

Soap operas seem to appeal to all age groups watching them. They can bring some families closer together. Some people think.

As for me, I think soap operas to be time consuming and non-productive. There is very little to be learned from watching them, much less than from a good book. So I prefer reading to watching soaps.

Gratitude

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. Gratitude is the heart’s memory.

The 13-th century German philosopher Meister Elkhart believed that “If the only prayer you say in your life is ‘thank you’, that would be enough”. I truly believe that what you give to the world will be returned to you.

With all my heart I thank God for my being, for every blade of grass, for the friends he blessed me with, for my sons that make me happy, for everything I have.

I am Unique

One look in the mirror tells us we are unlike anyone else in the whole world. Some of us are tall and others short, some have blue eyes and others brown, some have curly hair and others straight, some are light-skinned and others dark. But it’s not just what we look like that makes us unique. It’s our personal identity that sets us apart from anyone else. When times are tough and things don’t go us we planet, knowing our true self can get awfully confusing. But it is in these times when it is most important to understand who we really are and to realize all the characteristics that make us special. What comes to mind for you? Maybe it’s your honesty, your sense of humor or your athletic skills. Perhaps it’s your kindness or your super-human brainpower. Some of these might be part of your personal identity and it is in our personal identity that we find our greatest strengths. It is also in our personal identity that we find the courage to realize our weaknesses. We must be brave enough to know where to find it.

ПРИЛОЖЕНИЕ 5

ВНЕКЛАССНОЕ МЕРОПРИЯТИЕ

ПО АНГЛИЙСКОМУ ЯЗЫКУ

В 10-11 КЛАССАХ.

Страноведческая викторина «Что? Где? Когда?». Соблюдаются те же правила, что и в телевизионной игре с подобным названием, только вместо денег игроки получают жетоны, на которые могут потом заказать номер художественной самодеятельности (из предложенного перечня).

Вопросы викторины.

1. Город, в котором подписана Декларация Независимости (Филадельфия).

2. Город, про который говорят «Этот город никогда не спит». (Новый Орлеан).

3. Центр автомобилестроения в США (Детройт)

4. В каком городе убит американский президент Джон Кеннеди? (Даллас).

5. Самый безумный и уникальный город США (Сан Франциско).

6. Самый вкусный город США (Новый Орлеан).

7. Кличка города Нью-Йорк (Большое яблоко).

8. Нефтяной, химический и космический центр США (Хьюстон).

9. Южная столица США. Город магнолий (тланта).

10. Самый преступный город США (Чикаго).

11. Город памятников (Вашингтон).

12. Город Казино (Лас-Вегас).

13. Столица кинематографии (Голливуд).

14. Что такое горда – призраки?

15. Кто исполнил главные роли в фильме «Унесенные ветром»? (Вивьен Ли и Кларк Гембл).

16. Что означает Cu-Clux-Clun (Расистская организация «Белые патриоты Америки»).

17. Что называют чудом инженерной техники в США (Мост Золотые Ворота в Сан-Франциско) Golden Gate Bridge.

18. Участие в какой войне американцы считают позором для своей нации? (Во Вьетнамской).

19. Роскошные автомобили в США – это не только средство передвижения, но и средство … (самоутверждения).

20. Назовите короля джаза (Луи Армстронг) и короля рок-н-ролла (Элвис Пресли).

21. Как называется разновидность джаза об одинокой несчастной любви? (Блюз).

22. Что ставит на первое место в жизни американец? (Семью).

23. Чудо природы на границе штата Пенсильвания и Канады (Ниагарский водопад).

24. Еще одно чудо природы в штате Аризона (Большой Каньон).

25. Когда корабли плывут по Миссисипи кажется, что они летят. В каком городе это можно увидеть и почему? (В Новом Орлеане, потому что город находится ниже уровня моря).

26. Когда американцы говорят «Remember Alamo»? (Когда хотят подбодрить людей, потерявших надежду на победу).

27. Про какую женщину президент Линкольн сказал «Вы маленькая женщина, которая начала большую войну»? (про автора книги «Хжина дяди Тома» Гарриет Бичер Стоу).

28. Кого называют «yankee»? (всех американцев)

29. Кого называют «juppy»? (молодой, городской с профессией).

30. Кого называют «boomers» - бумерами? (поколение, родившееся в 1946-1964 гг, составляющее 1/3 населения США сейчас).

31. Назовите детские организации в США.(Boy-scouts, Girl-scouts).

32. Особенности улиц Нью-Йорка (не названия, а нумерация).

33. Чем знаменит Бродвей? (Самая главная улица Нью-Йорка, известная своими театральными постановками).

34. Самый известный бродвейский мюзикл («Cats»).

35. Неотъемлемая часть праздников на западе США (родео).

36. Блиц: президент – актер (Рональд Рейган); губернатор – актер (Арнольд Шварценеггер); президент, не живший в Белом Доме (Джордж Вашингтон).

37. Кто такой Аль Капоне? (Знаменитый гангстер).

38. Купюры в бумажнике американца – признак…. (бедности, так как у богатых есть кредитная карточка).

39. Что называют Big Muddy? (Миссисипи).

40. 6 и 9 августа 1945 …. (американцы сбросили атомную бомбу на Японию).