Яков Аракин - Практический курс английского языка 2 курс

1. Two friends are talking after a football match. One is happy — his favourite team has won;

the other is not as his team has lost the match.

2. Imagine a dialogue between two sports fans about their favourite sports.

3. A friend of yours claims to be an "all-round sportsman". Once you call on him and find

him surrounded by a thick cloud of cigarette smoke. You have a talk with him.

4. It's Sunday afternoon. In a few minutes, there will be a football match on TV, while on

another channel there will be a fashion show. Argument between husband and wife.

5. You are in the hall of your institute. You are an ardent athlete and like to get up at sunrise,

at which your room-mate is grumbling. You try to make him do at least his morning exercises.

XIV. Translate into English:

1. Я, кажется, знаю этого человека. Он был когда-то отличным бегуном, а теперь он

тренирует молодых спортсменов. 2. Неужели правда, что он не принимал участия в игре на

кубок? — Да, ему не повезло; накануне игры он слег с воспалением легких 3. Я едва мог

поверить своим ушам, когда мне сказали, что команда нашего института выиграла со счетом

6:0. 4. Напрасно вы торопились. Соревнования не состоятся из-за плохой погоды. 5. Он был

страшно расстроен, когда ему сказали, что его команда проиграла. 6. Моя старшая сестра

занимается художественной гимнастикой уже три года. 7. Я рад, что сегодняшняя игра

закончилась вничью. Мы могли проиграть, многие из нас не в форме. 8. Соревнования по

легкой атлетике еще не начались. 9. Кем был установлен последний мировой рекорд по

ярыжкам в высоту?

XV. a) Translate the text into Russian:

The Football Match

Something very queer is happening in that narrow thoroughfare to the west of the town. A

grey-green tide flows sluggishly down its length. It is a tide of cloth caps.

These caps have just left the ground of the Bruddersford United Association Football Club.

To say that these men paid their shilling to watch twenty-two hirelings kick a ball is merely to say

that a violin is wood and catgut, that "Hamlet" is so much paper and ink. For a shilling the

Bruddersford United A.F.C. offered you Conflict and Art; it turned you into a critic, happy in your

judgement of fine points, ready in a second to estimate the worth of a well-judged pass, a run down

the touch line, a lightning shot, a clearance kick by back or goal-keeper; it turned you into a partisan,

holding your breath when the ball came sailing into your own goalmouth, ecstatic when your

forwards raced away towards the opposite goal, elated, downcast, bitter, triumphant by turns at the

fortunes of your side, watching a ball shape Iliads and Odysseys for you; and what is more, it turned

you into a member of a new community, all brothers together for an hour and a half, for not only had

you escaped from the clanking machinery of this lesser life, from work, wages, rent, doles, sick pay,

insurance cards, nagging wives, ailing children, bad bosses, idle workmen, but you had escaped with

most of your mates and your neighbours, with half the town, and there you were, cheering together,

thumping one another on the shoulders, swopping judgements like lords of the earth, having pushed

your way through a turnstile into another and altogether more splendid kind of life, hurting with

Conflict and yet passionate and beautiful in its Art. Moreover, it offered you more than a shilling's

worth of material for talk during the rest of the week.

(From

"Good

Companions" by J. B. Priestley. Abridged)

b) Comment on the extract:

1. Explain the words: "To say that these men paid their shilling to watch twenty-two hirelings

kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that "Hamlet" is so much paper and ink."

2. Explain the words: "For a shilling the Bruddersford United A.F.C. offered you Conflict and Art."

3. What, in the author's opinion, does football give people? 4. Do you agree with the author in that?

What do you think about such games as football and hockey and the secret of their popularity?

XVI. a) Study the text and search for some arguments in favour of sport.

Summarize the text:

How Healthy Are You?

Check your knowledge.

What sort of shape are you in? Are you the sort of person who goes for a run each morning,

or are you the other kind who gets out of breath when reaching for a cigarette?

Maybe you have a lot of energy. You go to work or school, you make decisions all day, you

do extra work at home. Exercise? You don't have enough time — why bother anyway?

Well, the answer to that question is your body design. Human beings weren't built for sitting

at a desk all day: your body is constructed for hunting, jumping, lifting, running, climbing and a

variety of other activities. If you don't get the exercise that your body wants, then things can go

badly wrong. Your mind works all day, and your body does nothing: the results can vary from

depression to severe illness to early death.

Not a very cheerful thought, and of course the natural reaction is "It's not going to happen to

me." Maybe, maybe not. Here are two ways of looking after yourself: firstly, by seeing if you are

doing the right sort of exercise, and secondly by seeing if you have the right kind of diet.

(From "Modern English International". Mozaika. 1984, No. 263)

b) Persuade your partner to start practising sport immediately.

c) Speak on: 1. the role of sport in modern life; 2. sport as part of school and

college life.

XVII. Role-playing.

Work in groups of four or fire. You are people of different age and social standing.

Express your attitude to sport and sportsmen in general.

XVIII. Describe these pictures in suds a way as if you have seen the event with

your own eyes. Use some details, try to sound as convincing as possible. Use some

words and phrases given below:

the stadium with a seating capacity of ...; a pole-jumper; in good form; a referee; a starter; a

cross-bar;

wave a start; rushing towards; like lightning;

race past; carrying the pole; puzzled;

plant the pole; up in the air; with a smile on his face; awestricken;

pretty-looking; embarrassed; with her eyes downcast; with his hands pressed; land onto;

break the record; the record of his life; candidate master of sports of Russia.

STUDIES OF WRITTEN ENGLISH

VI

The plot is a very important aspect of written works. But there is something even more

important, that is, the main idea or the message.

Messageis the main idea that a writer wants to communicate in his work through the

characters and their behaviour, the physical and emotional background or sometimes through his

own generalizing statements. To make it clear and understandable you have to learn how to write the

gist.

Gistis commonly understood as the essence or main point (of an article, paragraph or

argument), also as the essential part of a story, novel, or play that helps to understand the main idea.

Summary deals with the plot of complete written works, such as a story, novel or play. Gist

deals with the main idea of any thoughtful writing, no matter whether it is a paragraph or a novel. It

is expected to be very short and clear.

In order to write the gist of a story ("A Day's Wait", for example) you have to do the

following:

1. Read the story carefully, paying attention to the characters, general atmosphere and the

author's remarks or statements (е.g. a bright cold day, a pale-faced and shivering boy, the growing

strain), the atmosphere of suspense.

2. Jot down the main points and see how they are linked ( е.g. the boy is ill but he won't go to

bed; he is still worried and keeps staring at the foot of the bed; he can hardly believe that he has no

reason to worry about his health).

3. Point out the author's remarks (the boy was looking at the foot of the bed strangely; that's a

silly way to talk; he had been waiting to die all day; relaxation was very slow).

4. Go over these points, reconsider them carefully and formulate the main idea, е.g. It is a

story telling us how fear and self-pity through ignorance or misleading information may cause worry

and suffering or how remarkably patient the child's endurance may be.

Assignments:

1. Give your own version of the gist of "A Day's Wait" and "How We Kept Mother's

Day".

2. Write the gist of "A Friend in Need". When writing analyse the title of the story.

3. Write the gist of two letters written by Judy and compare them. What is their

message?

LABORATORY EXERCISES (П)

1. Listen to the dialogue "Sports and Games Popular in England". Mark the stresses

and tunes. Repeat the text following the model.

2. Listen to the text "The Football Match", mark the stresses and tunes. Repeat it

following the model.

3. Write a spelling-translation test Check it with a dictionary.

4. Task I: Translate the English sentences into Russian (in writing) and check them with

the key.

Task П: Translate your sentences hack into English (orally) and check them with the

key.

5. Listen to the text "Sport in Great Britain".

Task I: Write down the Russian equivalents given in the exercise. Task II: Listen to the

text again and write down the English equivalents of the Russian phrases.