- •4 Read the dialogues. Decide whether they are taking place in formal (f), semi-formal (s) or informal (I) situations:
- •5 Choose from Appendix 1c. Making introductions the most suitable phrases to introduce yourself to:
- •2 Practice the conversations with a partner. Match a line in a with a reply in b and a further comment in c.
- •1 How important are good manners for successful communication
- •In professional (business) situations
- •In everyday life?
- •3 Now read the text carefully and answer the questions.
- •4 Find words or phrases in the text which mean:
- •5 Use the text and choose the best words to complete the short conversations below.
- •Introductions, greetings,
- •1 Do you know rules of introduction? Fill in ‘your opinion’ column.
- •2 Read the text below and verify your answers. Fill in ‘basic rules’ column Text 1. Do you know the basic rules of introductions?
- •2 Read Text 2 to learn more about safe and unsafe subjects in conversation in the usa. Text 2. Safe and Unsafe Subjects for Talk
- •3 Did you discover anything that surprised you? Make the list of safe and unsafe subjects for small talk. Use the information from the text and add some ideas of your own. Reason your choice.
- •1 It’s good to have friends everywhere. Share your opinion with the others on your understanding of friendship.
- •Is it connected with life style and values accepted in the countries?
- •2 The text below introduces you into the concept of friendship in the usa. Read the text and write out all the peculiarities you will manage to find. Text 3. Friends in the usa
- •3 Do you see any differences in your understanding of friendship and American view? Just for Fun!
- •Unit 2 Making Your Own Presentations Language Learning Experience and Objectives for the Future
- •Vocabulary and speech patterns
- •2 Presenters can use different techniques to get their audience’s attention at the start of a presentation. Match the techniques below to the examples.
- •3 Address the audience, adding an opening sentence or two
- •6 Study the Useful language for Presentation given below and decide whether each sentence in the box is formal (f) or informal (I).
- •Useful Language for Presentations
- •Introducing the topic
- •I’m going to talk to you about our faculty (department, company). First, I’ll give you some basic information about... Then, ...
- •I’m going to tell you about the ideas we’ve come up with for the ad campaign.
- •I’ll give you the background and talk you through the results of the market study.
- •I’ve divided my presentation into three parts.
- •Inviting questions
- •If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to interrupt me.
- •If you’re not clear about anything, go ahead and ask any questions you want...
- •Welcome to University
- •2 Now read the text carefully and answer the questions on the presentation's content.
- •4 Interpret the ideas from the presentation. Give your opinion using the following expressions:
- •I think that ... I strongly believe that ...
- •I am sure that ... I am convinced that ...
- •1 Which three aims of learning English mentioned in the text «Welcome to University» are most important for you?
- •4 Set your personal goals of learning English.
- •Transition Words and Phrases
- •Giving Your Opinion
- •1. My Language learning biography.
- •2. My significant intercultural experience.
- •3. My expectations from the University course of English.
- •2 Study the examples of Internet sites which can help in your independent learning of English. Choose one of them or add some of your own choice.
- •1 Did you have any experience of making presentations of your projects?
- •2 Read the text and find out about cultural peculiarities of presentations. Text 1. Cultural hints for performing presentations
- •Text 2. Speeches of Introduction
- •1 Do you know why English has become the world language? Mark the following statements as true or false.
- •Text 3. Why English has become a world language
- •1 You have already read about smart as an acronym that can be used to help you set effective objectives or goals. Let’s be more specific about what these features mean.
- •Text 4. Smart Goal Setting Specific
- •Measurable
- •3 Formulate your life goals according to the smart criteria.
- •Case study: Organizing a Seminar
- •If you are going to take part in this seminar, please:
- •The participants of the seminar are expressing their opinions
- •1 Read the short text. In the exercise that follows it circle t (true) or f (false).
- •5 Write an appropriate question for these answers.
- •6 Fill in the correct word derived from the word in bold.
- •7 Complete the text with the verbs in brackets. Use them in the correct tense forms
- •8 Rewrite the extract below in two ways (a and b). Follow the direction in each step.
- •Rewrite the extract, changing “Jack” to “Betty”. Make all the other necessary changes. Your first sentence will say:
- •9 Rearrange the steps of a presentation to make it according to the accepted rules. Mark steps by numbers in boxes.
- •10 Arrange the phrases from a presentation below in a proper order. Mark the given phrases by numbers in boxes.
- •Grammar and vocabulary file
- • Grammar Focus: Basic Word Order. Word Order in Questions
- •1 Put the words in the correct order and write the statements.
- •2 Make questions from the following words. Use the pronoun you in each case. Add necessary auxiliary verbs. For example:
- •3 Fill in the spaces with the correct tag.
- •4 What questions would you ask in the following situations?
- •5 Think of some other questions you often need to ask in class. Make a list of such questions to remind you how to ask these questions.
- •1 Here are some more phrases that are often used with get. Check their meaning and write them into a correct place on the diagram
- •2 Match a first part (1-10) with a second part (a-j) to make correct sentences.
- •3 Complete the sentences using a phrase with get.
- •4 Translate the following sentences into English. Use the expressions with get.
- •Unit 2 Grammar Focus: Tenses
- •1 Choose the best variant.
- •2 Read about the experience of a Spanish girl in learning English. Underline the correct tense in the following sentences.
- •3 Write about your attitude to learning English. You may borrow the words and expressions from the text above.
- •1 Give English equivalents to the following phrases.
- •2 Here are some more phrases that are used with do, make. Check their meanings and give their equivalents in Russian.
- •3 Add the verbs do or make to the following words and word combinations.
- •4 Match the verb phrases with the meanings.
- •5 Complete the following sentences with an appropriate form of do or make.
- •6 Complete the questionnaire about your studies and future work. Use do or make when you write the answers.
- •7 Translate the sentences into English.
- •8 Discuss with a partner.
- •Appendix 1 Phrasebook
- •In a formal situation
- •In an informal situation:
- •Appendix 2
- •What is an essay?
- •How to organize an essay?
- •Hints for Success
- •Preparation for the presentation
- •Delivery of the presentation
- •Hints for Success
- •Tapescripts
- •References
3 Did you discover anything that surprised you? Make the list of safe and unsafe subjects for small talk. Use the information from the text and add some ideas of your own. Reason your choice.
Safe subjects |
Unsafe subjects |
_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________
|
______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________
|
Suggesting ideas what friendship is and verifying them
1 It’s good to have friends everywhere. Share your opinion with the others on your understanding of friendship.
Do you think that friendship is understood in the same way in different countries of the world?
Is it connected with life style and values accepted in the countries?
2 The text below introduces you into the concept of friendship in the usa. Read the text and write out all the peculiarities you will manage to find. Text 3. Friends in the usa
In many countries, most friends date from schooldays, and it is hard to make new ones thereafter. For Americans it is the exception rather than the rule to remain in one place, and the school friends are usually left behind. New friends rise up to fill new stages of life. Even when the locale remains the same, new friends step in to match life changes: college friends, work friends, club friends, neighbors, new-hobby friends, sports friends, friends-with-same-age-children.
Frequently, each friend fills a particular niche. There’s the friend with whom I discuss certain problems, the one with whom I play tennis, the one with whom I work. When anything changes – my problems go away, I quit tennis, I get a new job – I may stop seeing those particular friends. If I am lucky, I will have a few lifelong friends, but these could be scattered about the world.
I will be very hesitant to ask friends for favors – one of my attractions as a friend is that I am not demanding. If I were, my prospective friends would be likely to back off. Neediness scares people. Rather than having to refuse a request, we prefer to have friends we can trust to make their requests rare and reasonable.
We do not wish to be indebted to anybody else. We like reciprocal arrangements because they keep the scales balanced. This week I drive my friend to the airport; next week she drives me.
Eventually in a friendship one can begin to take small services for granted – the loan of a dress, a phone call to find out vital information – but no one expects a real sacrifice. No matter how desperately my friend might need a babysitter, she would never ask me to miss a day’s work to take care of her child. I have sometimes been very confused when foreign friends did remarkable things for me – drove me great distances or took the subway to the airport to meet me. Such things are not in our vocabulary, and I find it difficult to respond.
For the average American, the feeling of being indebted is practically a physical pain. When a neighbor had to store some things in my freezer (which was no trouble for me), she could not rest until she had made me a special dinner. I rescued another neighbor’s runaway dog, and she bought me a cake. In point of fact, most of us are human and like to be helpful and would not mind receiving only thanks for a good deed.
Americans prefer not to borrow things from neighbors. We would rather buy our own, even if it means spending a lot for something we use once a year.
Attitudes are different in small towns where people know each other well. In rural areas most people do not have the money to buy tools they will use once a year, and a great deal of socializing goes on in the name of borrowing and returning things. In the cities, affluence has afforded independence, but it is significant that Americans would rather put their money into independence than into other luxuries.
In the special category of lifelong friends, the favor scorecard is not so carefully kept. But here the potential for favor-giving must be more or less equal. This is one reason it is difficult to have good friends across economic gaps. If you fly me to your villa in Spain, how can I possibly repay you?
If we are having a party, I am not going to arrive in the morning to help out. Otherwise, I would be infringing on the party-givers’ privacy. They are not obligated to have anyone outside the family in their house until the first guest arrives, and they don’t want me looking inside their cupboards and listening to them bicker about how many bottles of wine to buy.
Furthermore, if I insist on helping, I would seem to be suggesting that they are unable to manage alone. Even when I have a very close friend in need, I will go to lengths to appear not to be inconveniencing myself by helping. Part of my kindness to my friend is to act as if I think she can manage perfectly well without me.
Perhaps she is sick. I will make a casserole dish for her and take it to her house, which is some distance away. I may tell her that the dish was something left over after feeding my family and that I happened to be in her area anyhow. She may suspect the truth but will appreciate my consideration of her feelings.
I really do not want to say you will find no helpful friends in America. Many people in America do not live by the “rules” outlined here, and the country is full of good souls who exist to be of use to others.
(Culture Shock! USA. A Guide to Customs and Etiquette. Esther Wanning)