- •Contents
- •Предисловие
- •English in the world
- •Section I
- •Section II
- •The indo-european language family tree scheme
- •Indo-european
- •Skim Reading Task
- •From the History of the English Language
- •Text I The Language of Shakespeare
- •Info Box
- •Section III
- •Text II English Has no Equals!
- •Vocabulary and Speech Exercises:
- •Text III
- •English in the World
- •Vocabulary and Speech Exercises:
- •Info Box
- •Section IV
- •The English Language
- •Text IV Basic Characteristics of the English language
- •Vocabulary and Speech Exercises:
- •British English and American English
- •Section V Text V
- •Are You Happy with the Way, You are Taught English?
- •Vocabulary and Speech Exercises:
- •Discussion Points
- •What makes a good language learner? test your aptitude for learning a foreign language
- •Interpret your score
- •Discussion
- •Section VI
- •Vocabulary and Speech Exercises:
- •Writing
- •Section VII Discussion Points
- •Listening
- •Appearance
- •Section I Topical Vocabulary
- •Section II
- •Vocabulary and Pre-reading Work
- •Info Box Why hair turns grey when people are old
- •If you put these letters in order according to their numbers you will have a quotation.
- •Discussion Points
- •Skim Reading Exercises
- •My Aunt Emily
- •Writing
- •Discussion and Speech Exercises
- •Section IV
- •Vocabulary and Pre-reading Work
- •Text I
- •A Visit to the Country
- •Vocabulary and Speech Exercises
- •Word Guide
- •Grammar
- •Believe it or not
- •Section V
- •Vocabulary and Pre-reading Work
- •Word Guide
- •Text II
- •Mr. Rochester’s Visitors
- •Grammar
- •Believe it or not
- •Section VI Word Guide
- •Discussion Points
- •Skim Reading Work
- •Text III
- •Writing
- •Discussion points:
- •Appearance
- •Vocabulary and Speech Exercise
- •Dictation
- •Writing
- •Spelling and punctuation
- •Listening
- •1) Darren Appleby, a 31-year-old art director, is married to Nicola, 30. They live in Cheshire.
- •2) Steve King, 28, lives in London and works in the media. He's single.
- •3) Richard Shorney, 40, a business adviser, lives in Cambridgeshire with his wife Sarah, 32.
- •4) Andy Barden, 35, lives in Kent with his wife Sandra, 46.
- •5) James Palmer, 32, is a farmer from Cambridge. He's married to Alison, 27.
- •6) Joel Orme is a 24-year-oid television researcher. He lives in Manchester with his girlfriend Lyndsey Evans, 24.
- •7) Simon Wells, 44, and Rebecca Owen, 59, both teachers, live in London.
- •8) Michael Briggs, 56, is married to Linda, 48. They run a website business together and live in Norfolk.
- •Discussion points:
- •The Key thing is the Heart
- •Word Guide
- •Skim Reading Task:
- •Writing
- •Listening
- •Список использованной литературы
- •Мартынюк н. Л. Oral and written practic in modern english part 1
Info Box
How many new words enter the English language every year?
Unfortunately no list is kept. In France there is the Académie Française which approves new words but in England there are only dictionaries. The most authoritative of these is the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) which has 20 volumes, but this does not make rules about the language. It simply records the development of English worldwide as best it can. It accepts about 4000 new words (or new meanings) every year. The OED has readers in all English-speaking parts of the world, who record repeated uses of new words, including numerous technical terms. Some words take a surprisingly long time to enter the OED. For example ‘acid rain’ was first used in 1859, but its usage was rare for over 100 years and it didn’t appear in the dictionary until the 1980s.
Section IV
Pre-reading Work
Ex.1. Read and translate the poem.
The English Language
On every hand, in every land, it’s thoroughly agreed, the English language to explain is very hard indeed. Some people say that you’re a dear, yet dear is far from cheap. A jumper is a thing you wear, yet a jumper has to leap. It’s very clear, it’s very queer, and pray who is to blame for different meanings to some words, pronounced and spelt, the same? A little journey is a trip, a trip is when you fall. It doesn’t mean you have to dance whene’er you hold a ball. Now here’s a thing that puzzles me: musicians of good taste will very often form a band — I’ve one around my waist! You spin a top, go for a spin, or spin a yarn may be — yet every spin’s a different spin, as you can plainly see. Now here’s a most peculiar thing — ’twas told me as a joke — a dumb man wouldn’t speak a word, yet seized a wheel and spoke. A door may often be ajar, but give the door a slam, and then your nerves receive a jar — and then there’s jars of jam. You’ve heard, of course, of traffic jams, and jams you give your thumbs. And adders, too, one is a snake, the other adds up sums. A policeman is a copper, it’s a nickname (impolite!) yet a copper in the kitchen is an article you light. On every hand, in every land, it’s thoroughly agreed — the English language to explain is very hard indeed!
(Written by Harry Hemsley)
Ex.2. Give the pairs of words compared in the poem. In what are they similar / different?
Ex.3. Explain in your own words why the English language is considered to be so hard.
Ex.4. Transcribe and learn to read the following words:
Century, singular, the Earth, technology, although, German, to contribute, purist, widespread, aviation.
Ex.5. Read and translate the text:
Text IV Basic Characteristics of the English language
Simplicity of Form. Old English like modern German, French, Russian and Greek, had many inflections to show singular and plural, tense, person, etc., but over the centuries words have been simplified. Verbs now have very few inflections. And adjectives do not change according to the noun.
Flexibility. As the result of the loss of inflections, English has become, over the past five centuries a very flexible language. Without inflections, the same word can operate as many different parts of speech. Many nouns and verbs have the same form, for example, swim, drink, kiss, look, and smile. We can talk about water to drink and to water the flowers; time to go and to time a race; a paper to read and to paper a bedroom. Adjectives can be used as verbs. We warm our hands in front of a fire; if clothes are dirtied they need to be cleaned and dried. Prepositions too are flexible. A sixty-year old man is nearing retirement; we can talk about a round of golf, cards or drinks.
Openness of Vocabulary. This involves the free admission of words from other languages and the easy creation of compounds and derivatives. Most world languages have contributed some words to English at some time, and the process is now being reversed. Purists of the French, Russian and Japanese languages are resisting the arrival of English in their vocabulary.
The Future of English. Geographically, English is the most widespread language on the Earth, second only to Mandarin Chinese in the number of people who speak it. It is the language of business, technology, aviation and sport. This will no doubt continue, although the proposition that all other languages will die out is absurd.
(Headway Upper-Intermediate, 1998; Cambridge Advanced English, 1992)