6. Give Russian equivalents to the following words and expressions:

nuclear family, profound change, change for the worse, patchwork family, career ladder.

7. Fill in the chart with family words. Translate them into Russian.

Noun	Verb	Adjective	Adverb
	secure
		busy
			greatly
		real
dimension
	tend
		mortal

8. Translate the passages of the text in written form beginning from “ Some people claim ” up to “ you think so ? ”.

9. Write a short summary of the text of no more than 250 words using the guidelines on page6.

Unit III. Cultures

Text 1. SUPERSTITIONS AND PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOUR ACROSS CULTURES

1. Answer these questions:

- What is human behavior affected by?

- Does human behavior differs from culture to culture? Why?

- What is a "national character"?

2. Read the text and check if you were right.

Superstitions and patterns of behaviour across cultures

Human behavior is affected by both genetic inheritance and experi­ence. The ways in which people develop arc shaped by social experience and circumstances within the context of their inherited genetic potential. The scientific question is just how experience and hereditary potential interact in producing human behavior.

Every culture includes a somewhat different web of patterns and meanings: ways of earning a living and doing business, systems of trade and government, traditions in clothing, foods and arts, expectations for behavior, attitudes toward other cultures, superstitions, beliefs and val­ues about all of these activities. Within a large society, there may be many groups, with distinctly different subcultures associated with region, eth­nic origin, or social class. If a single culture is dominant in a large region, its values may be considered correct and may be promoted—not only by families and religious groups but also by social institutions. Some subcul­tures may arise among special social categories (such as business execu­tives and criminals), some of which may cross national boundaries (such as musicians and scientists).

What is considered to be acceptable human behavior varies from culture to culture and from time period to time period. Every social group has generally accepted ranges of behavior for its members, with perhaps some specific standards for subgroups, such as adults and children, females and males, artists and athletes. Unusual behaviors’ may be consid­ered either merely amusing, or distasteful, or punishably criminal. Some normal behavior in one culture may be considered unacceptable in an­other. For example, aggressively competitive behavior is considered rude in highly cooperative cultures. Conversely, in some subcultures of a highly competitive society, such as that of the United States, a lack of interest in competition may be regarded as being out of step. Although the world has a wide diversity of cultural traditions, there are some kinds of behavior (such as incest, violence against kin. theft, and rape) that are considered unacceptable in almost all of them.

Each nation has its own character, the French arc not like the English, and the D0utch not like the Germans. However, the attempt to define what makes each of the characters distinct will provide massive difficulties. The idea of a 'national character' is based on the assumption that people from one nation share basic common behavioral patterns and personality traits, differentiable from other nations. The concept has however been often criticized, and is often only fueled by perceptions of the one nation to­wards the other, resulting in a number of attributes that one nation appar­ently displays: the Germans are orderly, hard-working and humorless... However, findings in that field have been often contradictory, particularly from highly diversified cultures. The methodological difficulties may be one of the reasons why the term 'national character' has widely been re­placed with 'basic personality' or 'social character' in modern literature.

The two later concepts, although also often deemed as equally unreli­able, stem from the idea that the child is being subject to cultural influ­ence during his early stages, and hence develops a 'basic personality' similar in various cultures.

Vocabulary Notes

Superstitions – суеверия

Inheritance – наследственность

To be acceptable – приемлемый

Boundary – граница

Behavior – поведение

Suspicious – подозрительный

Distrust – недоверие

Much in common –много общего

To get up on a wrong side – встать не с той ноги

Incest –кровосмешение

Rape/violence –насилие

Perception - восприятие

3. What is the main idea of the text and the key points of the passages?

4. Write down all the words referring to such issues as:

a) inherited genetic potential, b) acceptable human behavior, c) personality traits.

Read out the sentences they are used in and translate them into Russian.

5. Look back at the text, find out and write down the answers to the following questions:

-Are ways of earning, doing business, systems of trade the same in different countries?

-Are subcultures associated with region, ethnic origin or social class?

-What is considered to be acceptable human behavior?

-Are the USA considered to be a highly competitive society?

-On what assumption is the idea of a “national character” based?

6. Give Russian equivalents to the following words:

perception, violence, incest, competitive, personality.

7. Fill in the chart with family words. Translate them into Russian.

Noun	Verb	Adjective	Adverb
			highly
nation
	regard
		personal
	accept
defenition
			equally

8. Translate the passages of the text in written form beginning from “ Each nation ” up to “ in modern literature ”.

9. Write a short summary of the text of no more than 250 words using the guidelines on page 6.

Text 2. COMMON SUPERSTITIONS

1. Answer these questions:

- Are you a superstitious person? Can you explain why?

- What common superstitions do you know'?

- Are superstitions different in different countries?

2. Read the text and check if you were right.

COMMON SUPERSTITIONS

What is a superstition^? The Russian chemist Mendeleyev gave the following definition to the superstition: "A superstition is the confidence which is not based on knowledge".

Superstitions are as old as mankind is. Some superstitions came so deep into our lives that we follow them without paying much attention at the action itself. For instance, when a person is sneezing, we automati­cally say: "Bless you". But few of us ever thought why should we bless the person sneezed? Ancient people believed that when someone is snee­zing, his or her soul leaves that person for a while. So you have to bless the person on returning the soul back.

What role are superstitions playing in our lives and why a great many of them are the same in different countries? Long before different reli­gions came to different countries and divided people into various reli­gious groups all people were pagans. They worshipped nature — water, fire, plants and earth as a living entity — and the remnants of that pagan­ism are still detectable today in our countless beliefs and traditions.

Many nations believe Thai a broken mirror means bad luck for seven years. But why seven years? Once the mirror is broken, you cannot sec yourself as a whole person in it. And something very bad is going to hap­pen to you. A long time ago people thought it took seven years for the body to repair itself. That idea has much in common with a scientific one about the cells of our body. It is known that the numerous cells of the body arc renewing every seven years.

There is a common saying in many countries: "He got up on a wrong side of the bed". But which side of the bed do we consider "the wrong side" and why? It's a common superstition when people believe that a right side is good and a left side is bad. Since most people arc right-handed they felt that being left-handed was suspicious.

We all know the scope of common distrust of Friday the 13-th. Many hotels in the world dropped the idea of having Room 13 or the 13-th floor. Lots of air companies have neither aisle 13 nor scat 13. According to folk-lariats there is no written evidence for a number 13 superstition before the nineteenth century. In fiction Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the fourteenth century's The Canterbury Tales. The earliest known documented reference in English occurred in the biography of Rossini in 1869. It was written there that many Italians regarded Friday as an unlucky day, and thirteen as an unlucky number. In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months in the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, Twelve Apostles of Jesus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing that completeness. It has also been sug­gested that Friday is considered to be a bad day as Friday was the day that Jesus was crucified. Unbelievably, but all those superstitions are still part and parcel of today's scientifically advanced society.

Vocabulary Notes

to bless - благословлять

a pagan - язычник

to worship –поклоняться

a remnant - пережиток

an entity - существо

to be detectable – быть обнаруженным

an aisle - проход

to be left-handed – быть левшой

to transgress the completeness- переходить за пределы

a written evidence- письменное доказательство

to sneeze- чихать

to drop the idea- подать идею

3. What is the main idea of the text and the key points of the passages?

4. Write down all the words referring to such issues as:

a) common superstitions, b) scientifically advanced society, c) worshipped nature.

Read out the sentences they are used in and translate them into Russian.

5. Look back at the text, find out and write down the answers to the following questions.

- Where did most common superstitions come from?

-What do we usually say when a person is sneezing? What is origin of that saying?

- What superstition is connected with a broken mirror?

- What is considered "a wrong side of the bed"?

- What is the explanation of the Friday the 13-th superstition'.'

6. Give Russian equivalents to the following words and expressions:

to pay attention to, to bless the person, a living entity, cells of the body, written evidence for.

7. Fill in the chart with family words. Translate them into Russian.

Noun	Verb	Adjective	Adverb
	differ
science
		new
	detect
		unbelievable
person
	vary

8. Translate the passages of the text in written form beginning from “We all know” up to “ advanced society ”.