1. Skim the text and fill in the gaps with the words which you think may suit.

Idiomatic Usage

The term ‘black sheep’ originated from the occasional …sheep which are born into a … of white sheep due to a genetic process of recessive traits. Black wool was … commercially undesirable because it could not be dyed. In the 18th and 19th century England, the black color of the sheep was seen as the … of the devil. In modern usage, the expression has lost some of its … connotations, though the term is usually given to the … of a group who has certain characteristics or lack, thereof deemed undesirable by that group. The first …of  black sheep' in a derogatory sense that I can find in print is from Charles Macklin's The Man of the World, a comedy, 1786: “O, ye villain! You – you – you are a black sheep; and I'll mark you.”

2. Complete the sentences with the appropriate derivatives of the following words : suit, symbol, refer, contradict, luck, like. Superstitions

It isn't entirely clear why black sheep were selected to … worthlessness. Possibly it is just the linking of black things with bad things, which is a long standing allusion in English texts – black mood, black looks etc. It may also be because shepherds … black sheep as their fleeces weren't … for dying and so were worth less than those of white sheep.

There is also a … long-standing English country tradition that black sheep are omens of good fortune. The Folk-Lore Record, 1878, included this piece: “We speak figuratively of the one black sheep that is the cause of sorrow in a family; but in its reality it is regarded by the Sussex shepherd as an omen of good luck to his flock.”

Other 19th and 20th century ... from Somerset, Kent, and Derbyshire agree with this view that black sheep indicate good luck; others say the opposite. Charles Igglesden, writing on Shropshire’s beliefs, in or about 1932, gave the opinion that black sheep were considered … and added that the only way to avoid the bad luck is to cut their throats before they can 'baa'.

3. Translate the text into Russian. Biological Origin

In sheep, a white fleece is not albinism but a dominant gene that actively switches color production off, thus obscuring any other color that may be present. As a result, a black fleece in most sheep is recessive, so if a white ram and a white ewe are each heterozygous for black, in about 25% of cases they will produce a black lamb. In fact in most white sheep breeds only a few white sheep are heterozygous for black, so black lambs are usually much rarer than this. Some breeds of sheep (such as the Hebridean, Ouessant and Black Welsh Mountain) are normally black.

ADDITIONAL READING

1. Read the text and say what the schoolmaster’s words led to. Give your point of view whether teachers’ remarks about schoolchildren should be restricted (then to what limits) or forbidden on the whole.

One day, my schoolmaster joked that I looked like something the cat brought in. The class laughed. The master smiled with his great yellow horsey teeth and gobs of phlegm stirred and rattled in his gullet. My classmates took that as a laugh, and when they laughed with him I hated them. I hated the master, too, because I knew that for days to come I'd be known in the school yard as the one the cat brought in. If the master had made that remark about another boy I would have laughed, too, because I was as great a coward as the next one, terrified of the stick.

There was one boy in the class who did not laugh with everyone else: Billy Campbell. When the class laughed, Billy would stare straight ahead and the master would stare at him, waiting for him to be like everyone else. We waited for him to drag Billy from his seat, but he never did. I think the master admired him for his independence. I admired him, too, and wished I had his courage. It never came to me.

(Teacher Man. Frank McCourt.)