Практика устной речи по английскому языку - Малышева О.Л., Валько О.В., Щёголева Т.П

people. A common newspaper expression for people who are trying to cope with strong emotions is that they are ‘fighting back tears’. This is taken to mean that they are being brave. But how much braver if they can let the tears flow and allow everybody else to know what they are going through.

Tears, Roet says, represent so many emotions: ‘They are a natural form of expression, like laughter. They can convey a multitude of feelings, such as happiness, sadness, loneliness, fear, relief, anger, or frustration, and such provide healthy pathways to the outside world.

’However, for some strange reason society has designated this expression of emotion to be unsuitable and the feelings are forced to remain underground.’ Many people, he says, have an overbrimming lake of tears ever ready to flow just under the surface, yet they do their best never to let them come out, at least in public.

After 15 years in general practice, Dr Roet came to realize that the inability to shed tears and show emotion was behind many of the illnesses he had been trying to treat. He now feels that providing a ‘safe place’ to cry is far more helpful to his patients than dispensing drugs. Many have not cried for years and at first are ashamed when the tears start to flow but, he says, it’s only when tears can come that emotional healing can take place.

’I hope that people will learn to respect tears. As we learn to laugh and cry naturally, without fear of guilt, we develop peace of mind and tranquility that provides a healthy basis for the rest of our life.’ But he admits he remains unable to shed them himself. ‘The only safe place for me to cry is in the cinema, where the tears well up and flood over the most trivial situations.’

’I believe now that I was told so much as a child that boys don’t cry that this imprint has sealed my tear ducts, except out of sight in the darkness of the make-believe cinema world.’

Sporting stars who break down in public remind us that there is nothing wimpy, nothing weak or loser-like about the ability to shed tears. Men who can cry easily are the real winners in life, those who are at the same time confident and sensitive.

Agassi’s tennis is wondrous, but it’s his ability to cry and remind us that he is fully human rather than just a tennis robot that will turn him into a world-class heart-throb.

Women always warm to a man who can cry. And perhaps the new breed of weeping sports stars will give other men ‘permission’ to cry, so that tears can become as natural a form of expression as smiling and laughter.

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Exercise 8. Translate the text below and study the counter-arguments Listening / that follow.

Reading

‘It’s high time men ceased to regard women as second-class citizens’

This is supposed to be an enlightened age, but you wouldn’t think so if you could hear what the average man thinks of the average woman. Women won their independence years ago. After a long, bitter struggle, they now enjoy the same educational opportunities as men in the most parts of the world. They have proved repeatedly that they are equal and often superior to men in almost every field. The hard-fought battle for recognition has been won, but it is by no means over. It is men, not women who still carry on the sex war because their attitude remains basically hostile. Even in the most progressive societies, women continue to be regarded as second-rate citizens. To hear some men talk, you’d think that women belonged to a different species!

On the surface, the comments made by men about women’s abilities seem light-hearted. The same tired jokes about women drivers are repeated day in, day out. This apparent light-heartedness does not conceal the real contempt that men feel for women. However much men sneer at women, their claims to superiority are not borne out by statistics. Let’s consider the matter of driving, for instance. We all know that women cause far fewer accidents than men. They are too conscientious and responsible to drive like maniacs. But this is a minor quibble. Women have succeeded in any job you care to name. As politicians, soldiers, doctors, factory-hands, university professors, farmers, company directors, lawyers, bus conductors, scientists and presidents of countries they have often put men to shame. And we must remember that they frequently succeed brilliantly in all these fields in addition to bearing and rearing children.

Yet men go on maintaining the fiction that there are many jobs women can’t do. Top-level political negotiation between countries, business and banking are almost entirely controlled by men, who jealously guard their so-called ‘rights’. Even in otherwise enlightened places like Switzerland women haven’t even been given the vote. This situation is preposterous! The arguments that men put forward to exclude women from these fields are all too familiar. Women, they say, are unreliable and irrational. They depend too little on cool reasoning and too much on intuition and instinct to arrive at decisions. They are not even capable of thinking clearly. Yet when women prove their abilities, men refuse to acknowledge them and give them their due. So much for a man’s ability to think clearly!

The truth is that men cling to their supremacy because of their basic inferiority complex. They shun real competition. They know in their

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hearts that women are superior and they are afraid of being beaten at their own game. One of the most important tasks in the world is to achieve peace between the nations. You can be sure that if women were allowed to sit round the conference table, they would succeed brilliantly, as they always do, where men have failed for centuries. Some things are too important to be left to men!

The counter-argument: key notes

*Women are militant, they shout louder because they have weak case.

*Even now, they still talk like suffragettes.

*It’s nonsense to claim that men and women are equal and have the same abilities, as women have a different biological function; are physically weaker; different, not inferior, intellectually.

*It is impossible to be wives, mothers and successful career women.

*They are unreliable: employers can’t trust them. It is not their fault: they leave jobs to get married, have children.

*There’s great deal of truth in light-hearted jokes: e.g. women drivers. Women are less practical, less mechanically-minded.

*Most women are glad to let men look after important affairs; they know that bearing and rearing children are more important.

*That’s why there are few women in politics, etc. They are not excluded; they exclude themselves.

*Anyway, we live in woman-dominated societies: e.g. the USA, Western Europe.

*Who is the real boss in the average household? Certainly not father!

*Men are second-class citizens and women should grant them equal status!

Exercise 9. A. Give the Russian for:

Vocabulary

		enlightened age	a second-rate citizen			on the surface	tired jokes
		to sneer at somebody		fiction		suffragette	by no mean
		B. Find English equivalents for the following:
		прекращать, переставать			èçî äíÿ â äåíü		презрение
		скрывать, утаивать		сознательный, добросовестный
		увертка, уловка		нелепый		комплекс неполноценности
		избегать

C.Completethefollowingword-combinationsfromthetext:

1. an enlightened… 2. to be equal… 3. to be superior… 4. a long, bitter… 5. a hard-fought… 6. day in… 7. a minor… 8. to put… 9. to be

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beaten… 10. to acknowledge somebody’s… 11. to give somebody one’s…

D.Explainthemeaningofthefollowinginyourownwords:

on the surface	to sneer	quibble	inferiority complex		suffragette
contempt	light hearted	superiority		superior	inferior

E. Find opposites to the following:

apparent	to conceal	to cease	superiority complex	inferior
	contempt		hostile

F. Find synonyms for the following:

to cease	to conceal	to shun	preposterous	conscientio
	apparent		light-hearted

Exercise 10. A. Complete the sentences:

Activate

1.The hard-fought battle for recognition …

2.Even in the most progressive societies …

3.However much men …

4.When women prove their abilities …

5.Men cling to their supremacy …

6.They shun …

7.They are afraid …

8.Some things are too important …

B.Use the required prepositions to fill the gaps in the sentences below.

1.Women are equal and often superior ___ men ___almost every field.

2.The hard-fought battle ___ recognition has been won.

3.___ the surface, the comments made ___ men ___ women’s abilities seem light-hearted.

4.The same tired jokes about women drivers are repeated day ___

day ___.

5.Men feel ___ women the real contempt.

6.Most men sneer ___ women.

7.Women have succeeded ___ any job you care to name.

8.Women have often put men ___ shame.

9.They depend ___ instinct to arrive ___ decisions.

10.Men cling ___ their supremacy.

11.They are afraid ___ being beaten ___ their own game.

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C. Make up sentences of your own with:

* to be superior to	* a battle for recognition
* on the surface	* to sneer at somebody
* to know in one’s heart	* to put somebody to shame

Exercise 11. A. Act as a reporter. Interview a man (or more) about Interaction the subject of the essay.

Discussion B. Answer the questions and discuss different points of view.

1.Do you agree that men’s attitude towards women remains basically hostile? Give your reasoning.

2.Is it nonsense to claim that men and women are equal and have the same abilities? Prove your point of view.

3.Is it true that most women are glad to let men look after important affairs, in your opinion?

4.Who is the real boss in the average household?

5.Do you agree that men go on maintaining the fiction that women can’t do certain jobs? Are men and women in our country equal in their career opportunities?

6.Do you side with the author of the essay that some men have a superiority complex? And what about women?

7.‘Some things are too important to be left to men!’ Do you think that’s true? If yes, what are these things?

Exercise 12. Develop the ideas expressed in the text and the Writing counter-argument notes. Write an essay reflecting

your views on the problem.

Exercise 13. Working in pairs or groups, decide which of the three CheckYourself example sentences uses each word or phrase correctly.

1.iffy

a.He may or may not get the job, it’s all rather iffy.

b.If you’re going to the Post Office, could you get me a large iffy bag so that I can send Mum her present?

c.The new manager’s great – really iffy.

2.in-depth

a.I was really in-depth when I lost my brother’s credit card.

b.She’s got a new in-depth CD player.

c. The commanding officer gave an exclusive in-depth interview to the Time magazine.

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3.couch potato

a.I’m starving – let’s go and get a couch potato in the High Street.

b.Switch the telly off, for goodness’ sake. You’re turning into a couch potato.

c.She doesn’t say much but she’s got a lot of couch potato.

4.whinge

a.I don’t want my bike to be stolen; I must get a whinge for it.

b.He is always whingeing about how unlucky he is.

c.He was whinged on charges of corruption.

5.gutter press

a.People’s lives are ruined every day by the gutter press.

b.When you buy an old house you usually have to have it gutter pressed.

c.He was wearing a gutter press shirt and blue jeans.

6.trump card

a.Thanks for the trump card and the flowers – they cheered me up.

b.Trump card losses and mortgage debt are crippling the economy.

c.Her trump card is that she’s the only one who speaks Russian.

7.drop somebody in it

a.My mother-in-law needed a lift to the station so I dropped her in it.

b.You really dropped me in it when you told Susan about the party, you idiot! I told you I hadn’t invited her.

c.We used to be friends and then one day Nick just dropped me in it.

8.bumbag

a.I’m not going to work here for peanuts – that’s a bumbag deal.

b.I hate this haircut – I look like a bumbag.

c.She reached into her bumbag for her bus fare.

9.earth-shattering

a.We had to use a bulldozer for the earth-shattering when we reshaped the garden.

b.Lots of people left the disco because the music was so earthshattering.

c.At two o’clock they got the earth-shattering news – they had won the lottery!

10.sit-up

a.I did 50 sit-ups then went for a run at lunchtime.

b.Sit-up properly at the table and don’t slump.

c.He was sacked for not doing something he hadn’t been asked to do – it was a complete sit-up.

11.comeuppance

a.We celebrated with a huge comeuppance at my house.

b.I can’t stand his comeuppance – he’s so arrogant.

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c.She finally got her comeuppance for being a poor leader when she lost the election.

12.sound bite

a.The journalist used a 30-second sound bite from the protesters in her report on the demonstration.

b.Nick intends to go climbing in the Himalayas, but only if he is in sound bite.

c.I like your new trainers – they’re sound bite!

UNIT 26. FAMILIES

Exercise1. Answerthefollowingquestionsaboutmarriageinourcountry:

Preparation

a.At what age do most women get married? And men?

b.How do most people meet their future husbands / wives: through the family; at parties, discos, clubs, etc.; at work or college, etc.?

c.Do parents have to approve the choice of partner?

d.Do parents ever choose the partner for their sons / daughters?

e.Do people get engaged? If so, how long do engagements last?

f.How long do weddings last?

g.Are there any interesting features of marriage in our country?

Exercise2. A. Read the following text and learn the underlined words.

Reading

What Is Dateline?

What is Dateline Dateline is the computer dating service that takes the chance element out of man-woman relations. In a single flash of electronic brilliance it provides a supply of partners who

are absolutely right for you – partners whose looks and conversation appeal to you from the first and with whom you feel quickly at ease, friends who are likely to grow closer with every meeting.

How’s it done? Simple. By taking careful note of what you are like and following your guidance on the kind of man or woman you get along best with, we select, from tens of thousands of profiles in our store exactly those who are destined to be your kindred spirits.

There’s nothing magic about it. It’s a matter of applying science to nature. By the laws of probability there are certainly people in the world who are physically and mentally right for you, just as there are stars in

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the universe similar to ours. All one has to do is to find them. Dateline has the unique power – thanks to modern computer science -of finding the few-in-thousands who can communicate with you at a deep level of understanding.

The Age We Live In Dateline – the most significant advance in modern relations between the sexes. It is part of the

new life-style. It combines all that is new and socially advanced with the traditional ideas of restraint and integrity that belong to any organization dealing in personal relationships.

Take the Dateline questionnaire. It has been carefully compiled with the aid of experts in psychology and social sciences, using the most up- to-date research of British and American universities, to provide the most accurate and least prying method of assessing personalities.

Take the Dateline computer system. It’s variation on the systems used for launching missiles and rationalizing the operations of banks. You can’t get more accurate or more impartial than that. It’s our own computer too, programmed and operated only by our own experts.

Altogether Dateline is the most exciting social advance for single people since the granting of the vote. Join it and your days will really come alive.

The Shifting Society Social life is changing more rapidly than

ever before. The older generation spent their lives more or less in one place. School, work and family life grew out of the same environment people were born in. You knew everyone in your district and it wasn’t too difficult to pick the friends who suited you, and who shared your interests. Even so, when society was more static the opportunities for widening your circle were still restricted, and life wasn’t so varied as it is today.

Now we’re in the space age. The old ‘school-work-early marriage’ syndrome is disappearing. A whole new generation of mobile young people is at large in the world. They’re people with initiative, independent of their home background, able to change jobs and locations, to take up studies and pastimes, and to pursue their careers all over Britain and overseas if they want to. Many do just that, taking their freedom in both hands and making the most of the world’s opportunities. Dateline is for them, and in this case, ‘them’ means you.

What Sort of People Join Dateline? Everyone joins Dateline: showbiz personalities, artists, Lords, musicians,

soldiers, cooks, stockbrokers,showbiz property-men, models, nurses, athletes, business executives of all kinds, teachers, secretaries, students, librarians, dancers. The only qualification you need is to be unmarried.

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Most of our members are busy, successful, intelligent people with enquiring minds and varied interests. They’ve usually got plenty of their own friends, who, perhaps, they know too well to get romantic about. Others, through pressure of work, or through a shy disposition, or because they find themselves in a strange new career environment, are short of interesting company, and want to make a fresh social start. Through Dateline they can do it. Dateline puts you in touch with new faces, a different crowd, and completely refreshes your social life.

More important for many people is the scientifically-based probability of meeting the man or woman you’ve always dreamed about, and simply falling in love. Yes, it does happen; so frequently you shouldn’t be surprised when it hits you personally. Every week Dateline receives scores of letters from happy couples matched by our computer. Already more than ten thousand known marriages can be attributed to Dateline, and perhaps thousands more that we haven’t been told about.

How Do You Join Dateline? Complete our questionnaire. Designed by experts in computer sciences and psycho-

logy, it takes about 15 minutes to fill in, longer if you’re in an extrathoughtful mood, but it’s fun. The 200 questions are very thorough and for a good reason. The more you tell us about yourself and the kind of people you most like, the more accurate our computer can be and the closer to your ideal will be your dates.

What Kind of Questions? First, basic straightforward questions on your age, physical built, appearance and social background. Then a few on education, social habits and

occupation. Next a chance to list all your special interests. And finally, the personality test in three parts. There’s also a space for any additional information about yourself that you care to give.

Side by side with the profile of yourself formed by the answers to this set of questions, you fill in a profile of your chosen man or girl, marking the qualities you prefer from the list given. All this careful planning goes a long way to ensure that the people you meet through Dateline will be exactly your kind.

Send for your questionnaire, and from there on, Dateline takes over.

Comprehension B. Choose the best option for each sentence:

1. Finding your ideal partner is like finding	c. the answer to you prayers.
a. a needle in a haystack.
b. a star like ours in the universe.	d. 50 pence when you lost 10 pence.
2. Dateline’s computer will find you a partner who
a. looks like you.	c. will laugh at your jokes.
b. will like you.	d. looks attractive.

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3. Dateline’s computer is
a. only used by Dateline’s own staff.	c. also used by banks.
b. also used for launching missiles.	d. only used for arranging dates.
4. Life nowadays is different because
a. old people don’t move around much.	c. young people have the vote.
b. young people travel abroad a lot.	d. marriages happen later in life.
5. Compared with the past, it is now
a. less difficult to find friends	c. much more difficult to find friends.
b. much easier to find friends.	d. no more difficult to find friends.
6. The world is full of
a. accidents for young people.	c. jobs for young people.
b. chance for young people.	d. risks for young people.
7. Most of Dateline’s members
a. have too many friends.	c. dislike their acquaintances.
b. are lonely.	d. have lots of friends.
8. Dateline couples
a. generally fall in love.	c. sometimes fall in love.
b. regularly fall in love.	d. often fall in love.
9. Dateline is responsible for thousands of marriages
a. a day.	c. a month.
b. a week.	d. a year.
10. In the questionnaire there are 200
a. accurate questions.	c. exhaustive questions.
b. complete questions.	d. nosy questions.

Speaking C.Answerthefollowingquestions.Discussyouranswers.

*If writing to Dateline, would you be honest filling in their questionnaire? Or would you make yourself out to be more attractive, intelligent or interesting?

*Can one find a perfect partner for life through an agency like Dateline?

*Is it possible to find a perfect partner for life by an arranged marriage (where your spouse is chosen by your parents)?

Exercise 3. A. The problem: Six people joined a computer dating Discussion but service there was a computer error. Instead of giving them perfect partners, it matched them with partners who had the same initials! Not realizing this, all the people turned up for their first dates with high

hopes.

Work in pairs. Discuss the questions and make notes:

* How badly mismatched were the couples, do you think?

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