VII.C. Устно переведите следующий текст. Дайте письменный перевод абзацев 1, 2, 3, 6.

Folk Songs

1. Folk songs are known to be the songs composed by amateurs, common people of various trades, and dealing with various phases of everyday life: work, love, festivities, etc. We believe the most popular of these songs to have been handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. Many of them seem to be popular not only with a definite community but with a whole nation. Folk songs of different nations have certain national traits which, although difficult to describe, clearly represent the general character of the people. The songs may be hundreds of years old, so nobody is sure to know who originally composed them. Thus a folk song may be defined as a song of some antiquity and unknown authorship, which has been handed down orally for many generations and has become widely known throughout a nation or a smaller community.

2. But although folk songs are obviously old, their age is usually exaggerated. In few fields of musical study has pure fancy been given rein to such a degree as in the field of folk music, where one may say that a melody dates back to a pre-Christian era although it shows unmistakable traits of its origin in the 18th century. For instance, practically all the folk songs currently used in Germany date from the period about 1800. Those of Italy are even more recent, while the English ones frequently show evidence of an earlier origin (16^th century).

3. Some more facts to be mentioned here in connection with the characteristic of folk music include the following. The folk song has remained almost inaffected by “art-music”. We find it to be independent of harmony and complete without any accompaniment. As these songs and tunes were not at first written down, but learnt “by ear”, therefore the modern versions usually differ much from the earlier. In many countries folk tunes were becoming forgotten with time until some enthusiasts, usually professionals, began to rescue them and put them into print. That is why some of the best of them are likely to be better known by townsfolk than by villagers who originally made them.

4. The 1950s and the beginning of the '60s were the years of a particular revival of the folk-song tradition. Many new songs were composed and played on acoustic guitars. These songs were often songs of protesting, complaining about bad things happening in society. Famous American singers of this type included Woody Guthrie in the 1950s, and Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen and James Taylor in the 1960s. Women singers included Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell. British singers included Al Stewart, Ralph McTell and Cat Stevens.

5. In the 1960s several pop groups began playing traditional folk songs in the style of pop or rock music. Groups like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span became famous playing “electric folk”.

6. Other musicians are also influenced by the style of English folk songs. Traditional folk songs, in the style they were sung over one hundred years ago, are still popular with a lot of people. There are traditional clubs in most towns. Even more popular is traditional Irish music. The Irish tunes are extremely varied and are so expressive that

they can be effectively used as instrumental pieces. Indeed, most of the traditional Irish song-tunes are instrumental in their origin.

VIII.C. Exercises to the text

Ex.1. Выпишите из текста все сказуемые, смысловой глагол которых выражен причастием прошедшего времени (Participle II). Определите время и залог сказуемого. Дайте исходную форму смыслового глагола.

Например: has been collected -- Present Perfect Passive Voice; to collect.

Ex.2. Найдите в 4-м и 5-м абзацах текста слова, оканчивающиеся на -ing. Подчеркните причастия настоящего времени одной чертой (2 примера), отглагольное существительное - двумя (1 пример), герундий - пунктирной линией (2 примера).

Ex.3. Найдите в 1-м и 3-м абзацах текста и подчеркните волнистой линией инфинитивные обороты: сложное подлежащее (Complex Subject) (4 примера) и сложное дополнение (Complex Object) (2 примера).

Ex.4. Дайте синонимы из текста к следующим словам и выражениям:

To write music, a job, to take place; by word of mouth; for example; ordinary people; to date back to; a characteristic (a feature); to pass from generation to generation; often.

Ex.5. Подберите антонимы из текста к следующим словам:

Easy, new, widely known, a professional, in written form, same, rarely, later, to end (to finish).

Ex.6. Опираясь на текст, переведите на английский язык следующие группы слов:

Народная песня, устно передавать из поколения в поколение, быть популярным у всего народа, иметь определенные национальные черты, передавать общий характер народа, песня неизвестного автора, стать широко известным, в области народной музыки, особенность народной музыки, народная мелодия, возрождение традиций народных песен, песни протеста, акустическая гитара, играть что-то на гитаре, чрезвычайно разнообразные и выразительные мелодии, инструментальные пьесы.

Ex.7. Письменно ответьте на вопросы к тексту:

1. What is a folk song?

2. Why do the modern versions of folk music differ much from the earlier ones?

3. What were some distinctive peculiarities of the revival of the folk song tradition in the 1950s and 1960s?