Яков Аракин - Практический курс английского языка 2 курс

Task Ш: Write 10 questions on the text Be ready to discuss it in class.

CURIOSITY QUIZ FOR EAGERS

1. Say in what countries the following sports and games are popular:

cricket, surfing, karate, reindeer racing, rugby, baseball, judo (jujitsu), lacrosse, lasso-

throwing, soccer, croquet

II. Which is better — to be a specialist or a generalist?

Divide your class into 2 teams. Match each specific term in column I. with the generic

term in column II. The team which is the first to match the terms correctly wins the score.

I

II

barbell

basket-ball

racket

cricket

wicket

golf

alpenstock

fencing

knockout

figure-skating

bishop

tennis

catcher

ice-hockey

gauntlet

mountaineering

puck

baseball

tee

boxing

spin

chess-playing

spike

weight lifting

III. Read one of the short stories by W. S. Maugham and speak about it in class. Speak

not only on the contents, but also give analyses of the characters, the author's mastership,

methods of characterization, style and language. See Notes on Style, p. 52.

UNIT SEVEN

I SPEECH PATTERNS

1.There is hardly a country in the world where such a variety of scenery can be found.

There is hardly a book by this author which he has not read.

There was hardly a football match which he missed.

There is hardly another team with better opportunities to win.

2.That would make you think you were in Holland.

The teacher made Jack rub out all the ink marks in his textbook.

They couldn't make William Tell bow before the tyrant's cap.

The slightest noise would make him start.

Make him repeat the rule. (Bur: He was made to repeat the rule.)

EXERCISES

I. Change the following sentences to as to use the patterns:

Pattern 1: 1. I don't think there is another hockey-team of equal popularity. 2. There was not

a single world championship he missed. 3. I'm not sure we have a vacancy on our staff. 4. We've no

more time, but you can finish the composition off at home. 5. There was scarcely a living soul at the

stadium. 6. I don't think there is any reason for their losing the game.

Pattern 2:1. The coach forced the athletes to postpone their training. 2. The strangers

wanted Roger to drive up to the back yard, and he obeyed. 3. They will never force Andrew to break

his promise. 4. During the conversation she felt uneasy. 5. He will not break with his bad habits, no

matter what you are saying.

II. Complete tee following, using Pattern 2:

1. What events made you ...? 2. Who could make your friend ...? 3. Which of the experiments

made the scientist...? 4. What kind of lesson makes you .,.? 5. What made Leo Tolstoy ...? 6. The

new coach made us ... .

III. Translate the following sentences into English, using the patterns:

1. Едва ли найдется страна, в которой не побывал бы старый моряк. 2. Едва ли есть

другой город с таким населением, как Токио. 3. Едва ли у них была другая возможность

освободить Овода. 4. Едва ли найдется человек, который не любит представлений кукольного

театра. 5. Ужас! Пожалуй нет другого слова, чтобы описать мое состояние в тот момент. 6.

Пожалуй не было ни одного соревнования по шахматам, которое бы он пропустил. 7. Едва ли

найдется другой тренер, такой внимательный и терпеливый. 8. Что заставило вашего брата

бросить бокс? 9. Двое воришек заставили Оливера лезть через окно. 10. Дориан думал, что

ничто не заставит его нарушить обещание, данное Сибилле Вейн. 11. Игра актера заставляла

зрителя не только чувствовать, но и думать, 12. Что заставило Байрона сражаться на стороне

греческого народа? 13. Что заставило Лэнни вернуться в Стилвелд? 14. Этот эпизод

рассмешил мою сестру, а меня опечалил.

IV. Respond to the following statements and questions, using the patterns.

(Make use of the conversational formulas given in the Reminder.)

1. I believe the Tower of London comes first among the historic buildings of London. 2. I

think Vasily Blazheny Cathedral is quite unique. 3. The City of London is overcrowded in the

daytime. 4. Christopher Wren was the most talented British architect of the XVII century. 5. Since

1927 up to 1946 A. Alekhin was the most outstanding chess-player. 6. Most schools in Britain have

adopted the core curriculum. 7. Can you lend me a rouble? 8. All of them are staring at the

advertisement. I wonder, why? 9. When I mentioned his name Mary buried her face in her hands and

would never answer my question.

Reminder. You don't say sol Just [only) fancy! Indeed? Why! Is that sol Dear me! Who'd

have thought it? I am surprised. I am shocked. It's amazing! It's incredible] Certainly! Of course.

Naturally! Yes indeed! Looks like that. Well, I think.

TEXT. THE BRITISH ISLES

The British Isles consist of two main islands: Great Britain and Ireland. These and over five

hundred small islands are known collectively as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern

Ireland. Their total area is some 94, 250 square miles. 57 Great Britain proper comprises England,

Wales and Scotland. The southern part of the isle of Ireland is the Irish Republic (or Eire).

Britain is comparatively small, but there is hardly a country in the world where such a variety

of scenery can be found in so small a compass. There are wild desolate mountains in the northern

Highlands of Scotland — the home of the deer and the eagle — that are as lonely as any in Norway.

There are flat tulip fields round the Fens58 — a blaze of colour in spring, that would make you think

you were in Holland. Within a few miles of Manchester and Sheffield you can be in glorious heather-

covered moors.59

Once the. British Isles were part of the mainland of Europe — the nearest point is across the

Strait of Dover, where the chalk cliffs of Britain are only twenty-two miles from those of France.60

The seas round the British Isles are shallow. The North Sea is nowhere more than 600 feet

deep, so that if St. Paul's Cathedral were put down in any part of it some of the cathedral would still

57 94,250 square miles:this is about the same size as New Zealand or half the size of France.

58 the Fens:low marshy land with lots of waterways (Фенленд)

59 moors(pl), moor: an area of open waste land; moors in England and Scotland are often used for preserving game.

60 The Channel Tunnel, which links England and France, is a little over 50 km (31 miles) long, of which nearly 38 km (24 miles)

are actually under the English Channel.

be above water. This shallowness is in some ways an advantage. Shallow water is warmer than deep

water and helps to keep the shores from extreme cold. It is, too, the home of millions of fish, and

more than a million tons are caught every year.

You have noticed on the map how deeply indented the coast line is. This indentation gives a

good supply of splendid harbours for ships; and you will note, too, that owing to the shape of the

country there is no point in it that is more than seventy miles from the sea — a fact that has greatly

facilitated the export of manufactures and has made the English race a sea-loving one.

On the north-west the coasts are broken by high rocky cliffs. This is especially noticeable in

north-west Scotland, where you have long winding inlets (called "lochs") and a great many islands.

Western Scotland is fringed by the large island chain known as the Hebrides, and to the north east of

the Scottish mainland are the Orkney and Shetland Islands.

In Scotland you have three distinct regions. There is, firstly, the Highlands, then there is the

central plain or Lowlands. Finally there are the southern uplands, "the Scott country," 61 with their

gently rounded hills where the sheep wander. Here there are more sheep to the square mile than

anywhere in the British Isles.

In England and Wales all the high land is in the west and north-west. The south-eastern plain

reaches the west coast only at one or two places — at the Bristol Channel and by the mouths of the

rivers Dee and Mersey.

In the north you find the Cheviots62 separating England from Scotland, the Pennines going

down England like a backbone and the Cumbrian mountains оf thе Lake District,63 one of the

loveliest (and the wettest) parts of England. In the west are the Cambrian mountains which occupy

the greater part of Wales.

The south-eastern part of England is a low-lying land with gentle hills and a coast which is

regular in outline, sandy or muddy, with occasional chalk cliffs, and inland a lovely pattern of green

and gold — for most of England's wheat is grown here — and brown plough-land with pleasant

farms and cottages in their midst. Its rich brown soil is deeply cultivated — much of it is under

wheat; fruit-growing is extensively carried on. A quarter of the sugar used in the country comes from

sugar-beet grown there, but the most important crop is potatoes.

The position of the mountains naturally determined the direction and length of the rivers, and

the longest rivers, except the Severn and Clyde, flow into the North Sea, and even the Severn flows

eastward or south-east for the greater part of its length.

The rivers of Britain are of no great value as water-ways — the longest, the Thames, is a little

over 200 miles — and few of them are navigable except near the mouth for anything but the smaller

vessels.

In the estuaries of the Thames, Mersey, Tyne, Clyde, Tay, Forth and Bristol Avon64 are some

of the greatest ports.

(From "Essential English for Foreign Students" by C. E. Eckersley, Book 3, Lnd., 1997.

Adapted)

61 "the Scott country": a hilly country in the south-east of Scotland where Sir Walter Scott (1777-1832), the famous British poet

and novelist, lived.

62 the Cheviots (the Cheviot Hills):a wool-producing country in Britain. The Cheviot breed of sheep has given its name to a

woollen cloth of high quality.

63 the Lake District:a beautiful place that has become famous thanks to a distinguished trio of poets — William Wordsworth

(1770-1850), Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834) and Robert Southey (1774-1843) - who made their homes therе. ("Lake poets" is the