Lies, damn lies?
Statistics is a branch of economics, but it is often said that there are lies, damn lies and statistics. Recent statistics of British life show that the family is happier than it used to be. The youth of today is /are likely to live longer than the previous generation. People own more things than they used to, but more police are employed to fight crime. Mathematics is a subject which is studied more by boys than by girls, as is physics. The earnings of working women are getting higher all the time and many women earn more than their husbands. Good manners are declining. The public spend /spends more on clothes, and clothes are becoming more and more expensive. Glasses are worn by more people, but only a minority favour / favours contact lenses. Statistics makes us want to grind our teeth and can probably tell us if we have any teeth left to grind!
TASK 10. Use the nouns given in brackets in the plural form if possible.
What does it come under?
If you're dieting there are certain foods you really have to avoid: cakes and biscuits are out for a start, but you can't live for ever on tomatoes and oranges. There are men and women who spend their entire lives counting the calories they take in each day. Some national cuisines make you fat. The Japanese have a high protein diet, while the Swiss eat a lot of milk products. Personally, I'm lucky not to have to diet, but my friend, John, can't eat anything without looking it up in his Calorie Chart. This is carefully organized so that strawberries and peaches are under 'Fruit'; potatoes and spaghetti come under 'Starchy Foods', and so on. I entertained John to a nice low calorie meal yesterday and at the end I offered him some jelly. 'What does "jelly" come under?' he asked looking at his chart. 'Half a litre of double cream,' I said, pouring the stuff over my plate!
TASK 11. Spot and correct mistakes in the sentences given below. Some of the sentences are correct.
Had I three hundreds lifes, I would gladly lay them down for my country. (hundred lives)
There are several pathes to the top of the mountain but all of them are extremely dangerous. (paths)
A great many book were scattered on the shelfs, on two small tables and even on the floor. (books; shelves)
Only three loafs of bread were left till the end of the week. (loaves)
That morning my parents were quite different from their usual selfs. (selves)
Jim was awakened by the sound of horses’ hooves. (correct)
The police was called and the ambulance was sent for. (were called)
Like many wifes Laura thought she knew the worst about her husband but she was mistaken. (wives)
On our way to the lake we passed several tidy farmhouses and answered the friendly waves of farm-woman in white aprons. (farm-women)
You will never hear truths from the mouthes of these youths. (mouths)
Telma was a woman who would do nothing by halves. (correct)
To appoint Mr. Blackburn to this position is the same as to set the fox to keep the goose. (geese)
The nurse had to spend the whole day on her foot moving between her patients and the operation theatre. (feet)
Two Chinamen with vegetable baskets on their heads walked past them. (correct)
The old man acquired a strange hobby of saving mothes from the candle light. (moths)
These two war heros shot down 92 enemy aircrafts. (heroes, aircraft)
What is the cheapest mean of transport in Singapore? (means)
The fishes were small and bony and the potatoes were all burnt. (fish)
Nobody is allowed to shoot birds or deers in this forest. (deer)
TASK 12. Translate into English paying special attention to the plural form of nouns.
По мнению востоковеда доктора Джаспера, японцы позаимствовали многие сказочные персонажи из китайской мифологии.
In Dr. Jasper, the orientalist’s opinion, the Japanese borrowed a lot of fairy-tale characters from Chinese mythology.
Французы известны как довольно вспыльчивые люди, тогда как полагается, что немцы – уравновешенные люди.
Frenchmen (The French) are known to be rather quick-tempered while Germans are thought to be even-tempered.
В русском языке все вводные фразы выделяются на письме запятыми, а в английском это происходит не всегда.
In Russian all parentheses are marked out with commas while in English it doesn’t happen all the time.
Английские дифтонги состоят из ядра и глайда. Ядра дифтонгов всегда произносятся с большей силой и более отчетливо, чем глайды.
English diphthongs consist of a nucleus and a glide. The nuclei of diphthongs are always pronounced with a greater force and more distinctly than the glides.
Ни одна из гипотез о происхождении этих вулканов пока не подтвердилась. Требуется провести еще несколько исследований, чтобы установить их возраст и степень опасности для людей, проживающих в непосредственной близости от вулканов.
None of the hypotheses about the origin of these volcanoes has been proved. Some more research has to be made to find out their age and the degree of danger for the people who live nearby.
В жизни каждого человека происходят кризисы. И дальнейшая жизнь этого человека зависит от того, как он отнесется к данному кризису. Если он сумеет воспринять изменения положительно, не обидится на весь мир, а сделает правильные выводы из своих ошибок - это шаг вперед в развитии его личности, если нет, то это несколько шагов назад.
Crises happen in the life of every person. And the person’s future life depends on his attitude to this crisis. If he is able to accept all the changes positively and not resent the whole world but draw the right conclusions from his mistakes then it is a step forward in the development of his personality; otherwise it is several steps back.
Боюсь, мы должны предложить доктору Сэвиджу покинуть нашу клинику. Я проанализировал все диагнозы, которые он поставил в течение последнего года, и рекомендации, которые он давал своим пациентам, и пришел к выводу, что он абсолютно некомпетентный врач.
I’m afraid we’ll have to offer Doctor Savage to leave our hospital. I have analysed all the diagnoses he has made in the recent year and all the recommendations he has given his patients and I have come to a conclusion that he is an absolutely incompetent doctor.
Какие критерии вы используете, чтобы оценить умения говорения ваших студентов? – Умения говорения оцениваются по таким критериям как беглость речи, наличие грамматических и лексических ошибок и оговорок, умение реагировать на реплики собеседника и некоторым другим.
What criteria do you use to assess your students’ speaking skills? - Speaking skills are assessed according to such criteria as fluency of speech, presence of grammar and vocabulary mistakes and slips of the tongue, ability to react to the interlocutor’s remarks and some others.
Лондонские парки это зеленые оазисы Британской столицы. Это также уникальный феномен отношения англичан к природе.
London parks are the green oases of the British capital. They are also a unique phenomenon of the attitude of the English to nature. (Englishmen’s attitude)
У миссис Смайли было три невестки, но она не любила ни одну из них и считала, что все ее сыновья сделали неправильный выбор. Ее неприязнь распространялась и на всех внуков.
Mrs. Smiley had three daughters–in-law but she liked none of them and thought that her sons had made the wrong choice. Her dislike also spread to all her grandchildren.
Все члены нашей семьи – домоседы. Мы никогда никуда не ездим. Все лето мы проводим в городе, и нас никогда не заманишь ни на какую вечеринку. Мы не ходим на свадьбы и похороны наших родственников. Пожалуйста, не обижайтесь на нас и принимайте нас такими, как мы есть.
All the members of our family are stay-at-homes. We never go anywhere. We stay all summer in town and can’t be lured to any kind of party. We do not visit our relatives’ weddings and funerals. Don’t have hard feelings (hold grievance) against us and take us as we are.
На старика нельзя было смотреть без жалости. Его одежда была грязной и потрепанной, ботинки изношенными, a вместо шляпы на голове было несколько старых женских платков. Жизнь, казалось, никогда его не баловала.
One couldn’t look at the old man without pity. His clothes were dirty and shabby, his boots worn-out, and there were several women’s kerchiefs on his head instead of a hat. His life seems never to have treated him kindly.
Сообщается, что местонахождение преступной группировки уже обнаружено. Несмотря на то, что преступники хорошо вооружены, полиция надеется провести операцию по их захвату быстро и без жертв.
The whereabouts of the criminal group is / are reported to have been found. Though the criminals are well armed, the police hope to capture them quickly and without losses.
Когда машина въехала на окраину большого города, Стиву показалось, что он узнал окрестности Бирмингема. Но потом он подумал, что во всех больших промышленных городах есть такие грязные непривлекательные улочки, где совсем нет цветов и деревьев, и высоких много заборов.
When the car entered the outskirts of some big city Steve thought that he recognized the surroundings of Birmingham. But then he thought that all big industrial cities had such dirty and unpleasant/unappealing streets without any flowers or trees and with a lot of high fences.
Тина распаковала свою одежду и разложила ее в комоде. Все ее пожитки уместились в двух верхних ящиках. В нижние ящики она положила самое ценное – дневники своего отца, которые она надеялась когда-нибудь опубликовать.
Tina unpacked her clothes and put them away into the chest of drawers. All her belongings went into the two top drawers. In the bottom drawers she put the most precious thing – her father’s diaries which she hoped to publish one day.
Где вы собираетесь поместить содержание книги: после титульного листа или в конце? - Мне кажется, для читателей будет удобней, если содержание будет в начале. Кстати, у вас есть какие-нибудь замечания по содержанию четвертой главы?
Where are you going to place the contents of the book: after the title page or at the end? - I think it will be more convenient for the readers if the contents will be at the beginning. By the way, do you have any comments about the content of Chapter 4?
Дороти все время смотрела на свои часы. Сначала ей показалось, что они очень спешат, но когда обе стрелки встретились на 12, ей стало казаться, что часы отстают. Больше всего на свете она не любила ждать, но у нее не было выбора.
Dorothy was looking at her watch all the time. At first it seemed to her that it was very fast, but when both hands met at 12, it began to seem to her that her watch was slow. She hated to wait more than anything else on earth, but she had no choice.
TASK 13. Revision: The Noun. Fill in the words in the possessive case wherever necessary.