4. Explain the words in English:

an applicant, a student¹ s record book, preliminary courses, full time students, part time students, to have a good command of languages, curriculum, language laboratory, to work by fits and starts, to lack fluency

4. Answer the questions:

1. What is the name for institutions where people can go on studying after school? 2. Is the Gomel State University popular among the applicants? 3. When was it opened? 4. How many chairs are there at the Gomel State University? 5. What are its staff? 6. What are the main departments? 7. Which forms of training are there at the Gomel State University? 8. When do applicants go in for entrance exams? 9. Which exams are compulsory? 10. What are preliminary courses for? 11. What do grants depend on? 12. Why are the first two years of study generally the most difficult? 13. What conditions for study are there at the Gomel State University?

Ex.l Answer the questions using the list below:

1. Which language in the world is spoken by most people?

2. Which language has the largest vocabulary?

3. Which is the oldest written language?

4. Which sub-continent has the largest number of languages?

5. Which language has no irregular verbs?

6. Which language has the most letters in its alphabet?

7.In which language is the largest encyclopedia printed?

[Spanish, Cambodian, English, Egyptian, Esperanto, Mandarin Chinese, Indian]

Ex.2 Translate the following words and word combinations: recent, exporting, a settlement, a mother tongue, bilingual, a prominent place, advertising, simplicity, an inflection, to simplify, flexibility, free admission, to be reversed, widespread.

Ex.3 Pre-reading task. Are these statements true or false?

1.English was already an important language 400 years ago. 2.It’s mainly because of the USA that English has become the world language. З.Опе person out of seven in the world speaks perfect English. 4.There are few inflections in modern English. 5.In English many verbs can be used as nouns. 6.English has borrowed words from many other languages. 7.1n the future, all other languages will die out.

Ex.4 Read and translate the text:

English As A World Language Today, when English is one of the major languages in the world, it’s difficult to realize that this is a recent thing - that in Shakespeare's time only a few million people spoke English and it was not thought to be important by Europe and was unknown to the rest of the world. T he exporting of English began in the 17^th century, with the first settlements in North America. English has become the world language because of its establishment as a mother tongue outside England, all over the world.

People who speak English fall into three groups: 1 .those who have learned it as their native language; 2. those who have learned it as a second language in a society that is bilingual; 3.those who are forced to use it for practical purposes - administrative, professional or educational. Mother tongue speakers have now reached around 300 million; a further 300 million use it as a second language; 100 million use it fluently as a foreign language. The number of those who can speak English is these days 1,000 million.

English is used as an official or semi-official language in 60 countries and has a prominent place in 20 ones. It is the main language of books, newspapers, airports and air-traffic control, business, academic conferences, science, medicine, sports, pop music and advertising. 75% of the world’s mail and 60% of the world’s telephone calls are in English. Of all electronic information, 80% is stored in English. English radio programs are received by 50 million people in 120 countries. 50 children and 80 million students study English as a foreign language.

Why is the English language popular? It has the following characteristics that make it easy to

learn.

Simplicity of form. Old English, like modern German, French or Russian, had many inflections to show number, tense, person, etc. But the words have been simplified. Verbs now have very few inflections and adjectives don’t change according to the noun.

Flexibility. Without inflections, the same English word can operate as many different parts of speech (this phenomenon is known as “conversion”). Many nouns and verbs have the same form, for example drink, walk, kiss, look. We can talk about water to drink and to water the flowers; time to go and to time a race. Adjectives are used as verbs. We warm our hands in front of a fire to make them warm. Prepositions too are flexible. A 60-year old man is nearing retirement; we can talk about a round of boxing and cards.

Openness of vocabulary. This means the free admission of words from other languages. Most world languages came to English at some time, and the process is now being reversed.

Geographically, English is the most widespread language, second only to Mandarin Chinese in the number of people who speak it. This will of course continue, although the preposition that all other languages will die out is absurd.

Ex.5 Answer the questions: l.What was the position of English in the world in Shakespeare's time? 2.When did the exporting of English begin? 3.What are the 3 groups people who speak English fall into? 4. What is the number of those who can speak English these days? 5.What facts can prove that English is very popular nowadays? 6.How' many children and students study English as a foreign language? 7.What is the most important difference between Old English and Modern English? 8.What is conversion?

Ex.6 Here are the answers to some questions. Work out the questions.

l.A few million. 2.Because it is a mother tongue outside England, all over the world. 3.1n the 17^th century. 4.75%. 5.60%. 6.Yes, it had a lot of inflections. 7.Simplicity of form, flexibility and openness of vocabulary. 8.Mandarin Chinese.

Ex.7 What do you know and what do you think?

l.What piece of information given in the text surprised you most? 2. Which of the 3 groups of English speakers do you belong to? What is your reason for Learning English? 3.1n which countries is English spoken as a first language? 4.In which countries is English used as a second language?

5. What words in English do you know which came from other languages? 6.Which words came to Russian from English? 7.Which variant of English would you rather choose to learn: British or American? Why?

Ex.8 British and American English.