Focus on vocabulary

1. Transcribe and read out the following words.

permeate, access, alas, emerge, reject (n), accumulated, obstacle, relay

2. Study the definitions and work out the words.

1. say or admit that one has done wrong

2. make sb feel stupid or unable to think clearly

3. long, monotonous task

4. come out or appear from inside or from being hidden

5. make filthy

6. able to be reached, used, visited

7. pass, flow or spread into every part of

8. make or become greater in number or quantity

9. (fig) strong desire (for sth)

10. throw up into or through the air

3. Give synonyms.

1. serious 6. barrier

2. contempt 7. sad, sorry

3. rob oneself of 8. underprivileged

4. grade 9. admit

5. understanding 10. the human race

4. Fill in the blanks with the correct prepositions.

1. ready access … wisdom

2. shocked … the number of the illiterate

3. thirsty … learning

4. obstacles … true learning

5. read slowly, word … word

6. envy sb … having this ability

7. comfortable … reading

8. read … four

5. Give Russian equivalents of the following.

to toss, a hopper, a sausage mill, rejects, mass products, alas

6. Write 6 more words and expressions to combine with READ.

to read comfortably, to oneself, …

7. Study the sets of similar words below. What is the difference between them? Now, choose one of the words in each set to fit into the following sentences.

1. comprehensive – comprehensible

a. One often finds a writer’s book more … if one knows about his life and the time when he lived.

b. The teacher gave a … description of the subject.

2. regretful – regrettable

a. He was sorry to leave when he saw their … faces.

b. Don’t feel …, you were not to blame.

3. compulsory – compulsive – compelling

a. Did he have a … reason for going?

b. You must go; it’s … and you’ll be fined if you don’t.

c. He’s a … eater, he eats all the time.

8. As you read the following extract, try to decide what the missing words might be. Give several alternatives for each blank, if possible.

I’m __________ at the number of people who read __________, word by word, and are never comfortable in reading and do not enjoy it.

Examinations, tests, grades – these are all __________ to true learning.

In schools, sources of learning are __________ with tensions, __________, competitive sports.

We have been made to hate books and therefore to __________, with private regret mixed in, the educated man because he is an intellectual.

I do not know when it is that the joy __________ of school for most children, so that they end not only hating school but even worse, by hating books, and this is __________ indeed, for in books alone is the accumulated wisdom of the whole __________, and to read no books is to __________ the self of ready __________ to wisdom, __________ generation to generation, through centuries.

9. Say it in English.

1. жажда знаний

2. обязательное образование

3. лишать себя легкого доступа к мудрости, накопленной всем человечеством

4. презирать интеллектуалов

5. препятствия на пути к истинному знанию

6. ежедневная однообразная работа

7. шокирован числом неграмотных

8. передавать от поколения к поколению

9. достигать самопознания

10. Complete the sentences below in two different ways.

1. I’m shocked at the number of people who …

2. The purpose of education should be …

3. I doubt the wisdom of compulsory education as …

4. In schools sources of learning are fouled with … and it is no wonder that …

5. We have been made to hate books and therefore …

6. To read no books is …

7. It’s only in books that …

11. Could you explain the meaning of the following?

1. We have been made to hate books and therefore to scorn, with private regret mixed in, the educated man because he is an intellectual.

2. Education, yes, but not this sausage mill, this hopper, into which our children are all tossed at the age of 6, and from which they emerge, in dazed confusion, as rejects or a mass products.

3. My heart has often ached for such little scholars, their sweet enthusiasm dying in the daily grind.

4. To read no books is to deprive the self of ready access to wisdom.

12. Fill in the gaps in the following passage with suitable words; give alternatives where possible.

HOW TO CULTIVATE THE HABIT OF READING

Your child doesn’t read? Don’t __________, __________ to business instead: start reading a long book __________ to him. Don’t tell him __________ as you did before, but read a long book, a __________ each day. Don’t be afraid that your child won’t ever learn to read, don’t __________ the natural process, just read for one, two, three years, at least once a week – just keep the child interested. Read him a book that __________ him. Don’t __________ him read, don’t __________ him, just read on even when you start losing __________. Read on and one day, I’m __________, your child will __________ the book himself and will read a page to know what happens next. Then he will read the book you once started to read to him, and then he will read __________ long __________.