2. Translate the following proper names:

Vologda Province; Ugro-Finnish origin; the Komi; Minnesota; Veliki Ustyug; Khrenovo; Orthodox Church; Cossacks.

3. Translate the following words and phrases:

a remote village; analyst of social stratification; the first conscious recollection etched in his mind; a center of arts and crafts; peasant culture; semipagan folklore; nomadic life; agnostic; ardent member of the populist Social Revolutionary party;

4. Translate the text about Pitirim Sorokin into Russian. Reading and summarizing

Read an extract from Pitirim Sorkin’s work about social mobility and do the tasks that follow.

Pitirim Sorokin Conception of Social Mobility and Its Forms

(1)By social mobility is understood any transition of an individual or social object or value - anything that has been created or modified by human activity - from one social position to another. There are two principal types of social mobility, horizontal and vertical. By horizontal social mobility or shifting, is meant the transition of an individual or social object from one social group to another situated on the same level. Transitions of individuals, as from the Baptist to the Methodist religious group, from one citizenship to another, from one family (as a husband or wife) to another by divorce and remarriage, from one factory to another in the same occupational status, are all instances of social mobility. So too are transitions of social objects, the radio, automobile, fashion, Communism, Darwin's theory, within the same social stratum, as from London to California, or from any one place to another. In all these cases, "shifting" may take place without any noticeable change of the social position of an individual or social object in the vertical direction. By vertical social mobility is meant the relations involved in a transition of an individual (or a social object) from one social stratum to another. According to the direction of the transition there are two types of vertical social mobility: ascending and descending, or social climbing and social sinking. According to the nature of the stratification, there are ascending and descending currents of economic, political, and occupational mobility, not to mention other less important types. The ascending currents exist in two principal forms: as an infiltration of the individuals of a lower stratum into an existing higher one; and as a creation of a new group by such individuals, and the insertion of such a group into a higher stratum instead of, or side by side with, the existing groups of this stratum.. Correspondingly, the descending current has also two principal forms: the first consists in a dropping of individuals from a higher social position into an existing lower one, without a degradation or disintegration of the higher group to which they belonged; the second is manifested in a degradation of a social group as a whole, in an abasement of its rank among other groups, or in its disintegration as a social unit.. The first case of "sinking" reminds one of an individual falling from a ship; the second of the sinking of the ship itself with all on board, or of the ship as a wreck breaking itself to pieces.

(2)The cases of individual infiltration into an existing higher stratum or of individuals dropping from a higher social layer into a lower one are relatively common and comprehensible. They need no explanation. The second form of social ascending and descending, the rise and fall of groups, must be considered more carefully.

(3)The following historical examples may serve to illustrate. The historians of India's caste-society tell us that the caste of the Brahmins did not always hold the position of indisputable superiority which it has held during the last two thousand years. In the remote past, the caste of the warriors and rulers, or the caste of the Kshatriyas, seems to have been not inferior to the caste of the Brahmins; and it appears that only after a long struggle did the latter become the highest caste. If this hypothesis be true, then this elevation of the rank of the Brahmin caste as a whole through the ranks of other castes is an example of the second type of social ascent. The group as a whole being elevated, all its members, incorpore, through this very fact, are elevated also.

(4)Before the recognition of the Christian religion by Constantine the Great, the position of a Christian Bishop, or the Christian clergy, was not a high one among other social ranks of Roman society. In the next few centuries the Christian Church, as a whole, experienced an enormous elevation of social position and rank. Through this wholesale elevation of the Christian Church, the members of the clergy, and especially the high Church dignitaries, were elevated to the highest ranks of medieval society. And, contrariwise, a decrease in the authority of the Christian Church during the last two centuries has led to a relative abasement of the social ranks of the high Church dignitaries within the ranks of the present society. The position of the Pope or a cardinal is still high, but undoubtedly it is lower than it was in the Middle Ages. The group of the legists in France is another example. In the twelfth century, this group appeared in France, as a group, and began to grow rapidly insignificance and rank. Very soon, in the form of the judicial aristocracy, it inserted itself into the place of the previously existing nobility. In this way, its members were raised to a much higher social position. (5)During the seventeenth, and especially the eighteenth centuries, the group, as a whole, began to "sink," and finally disappeared in the conflagration of the Revolution. A similar process took place in the elevation of the Communal Bourgeoisie in the Middle Ages, in the privileged Six Corps or the Guilda Mercatoria, and in the aristocracy of many royal courts. To have a high position at the court of the Romanoffs, Hapsburgs, or Hohenzollerns before the revolutions meant to have one of the highest social ranks in the corresponding countries. The "sinking" of the dynasties led to a "social sinking" of all ranks connected with them. The group of the Communists in Russia, before the Revolution, did not have any high rank socially recognized. During the Revolution the group climbed an enormous social distance and occupied the highest strata in Russian society. As a result, all its members have been elevated en masse to the place occupied by the Czarist aristocracy. Similar cases are given in a purely economic stratification. Before the "oil" and "automobile" era, to be a prominent manufacturer in this field did not mean to be a captain of industry and finance. A great expansion of these industries has transformed them into some of the most important kinds of industry. Correspondingly, to be a leading manufacturer in these fields now means to be one of the most important leaders of industry and finance. These examples illustrate the second collective form of ascending and descending currents of social mobility.

Tasks

1. Read passage 1 and condense its content. Begin with:

The author points out that …

The passage describes …

The main idea of the passage is …

2. Name the passages that illustrate the examples of Sorokin’s horizontal and vertical social mobility.

3. Find the key sentence of passage 5.

4. Summarize the text.

SPEAKING

Taking part in the conference

Vocabulary to use

a meeting/ a session

a plenary meeting

a chairman/ a chairwoman/ a chairperson

to give the floor to someone

to fix the time limit

to break the time limit

to call attention to the time limit

to stimulate discussions

to ask somebody a question

to call for questions

a speaker

to take part in/ to participate/ to attend a conference

to submit abstracts/ to present papers

to take the floor

to digress from the subject

Answer the questions:

1. Have you ever participated in international conferences?

2. When did you last take part in a conference?

3. What problems were considered?

4. How many participants attended the conference?

5. Which reports attracted general attention?

6. Whose report was of particular interest?

7. What problem did it deal with?

8. Did you present a paper at the conference?

9. Why is it necessary for a scientist to know foreign languages?

Work in pairs:

Tell your partner about the experience of attending a conference.

Act out the situation: you are to discuss your research, its progress and results. One person is the chairman, the rest are the speaker.