ulianova_ov_grichin_sv_i_dr_general_english

UNIT 2

HISTORY OF ENGLISH

2.1 Прочитайте информацию из истории

английского языка и расставьте события (A-G) в хронологическом порядке (1-7), снабдив их датами

там, где необходимо.

A_____ Germanic tribes invaded British Isles in __________________

.

B_____ Normans conquered Britain in ______________ .

C_____ Britain was a part of the Roman Empire in ________________

.

D_____ Celts were pushed into the mountainous regions of the islands. E_____ French became the language of rich people for three centuries and many French words and grammar rules came into English.

F____ Vikings invaded Britain in _____ and added many Norse words. G_____ Latin alphabet was borrowed from Christian missionaries and became the written system of English.

OLD ENGLISH

When Julius Caesar, later to be Roman Emperor, invaded Britain in BC 54-5, the 'Celtic' tribes lived in the British Isles. The Romans brought Latin to Britain, which was part of the Roman Empire for over 400 years. But early English did not develop mainly from Latin. So it is unlike French, Spanish and Italian, which did come directly from Latin.

'Early English' was the language of three Germanic tribes which came to the British Isles during the 5th Century AD. Angles, Saxons and Jutes crossed the North Sea from what is the present day Denmark and northern Germany. They spoke different dialects of a 'Germanic' language. This explains why German and English are often similar, as many of their words developed from the same original language.

Most of the Celtic speakers were pushed into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland.

Old English was written in an alphabet called Runic, derived from the Scandinavian languages. The Latin Alphabet was brought over from Ireland by Christian missionaries. This has remained the writing system of English.

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At this time, the vocabulary of Old English consisted of an Anglo Saxon base with borrowed words from the Scandinavian languages (Danish and Norse) and Latin. Latin gave English words like street, kitchen, kettle, cup, cheese, wine, angel, bishop, martyr, candle. The Vikings who invaded Britain from Scandinavia in 878 AD, added many Norse words: sky, egg, cake, skin, leg, window (wind eye), husband, fellow, skill, anger, flat, odd, ugly, get, give, take, raise, call, die, they, their, them. Many pairs of English and Norse words coexisted giving us two words with the same or slightly differing meanings.

In 1066 the Normans conquered Britain. French became the language of the Norman aristocracy and added more vocabulary to English. More pairs of similar words arose.

Because the English underclass cooked for the Norman upper class, the words for most domestic animals are English (ox, cow, calf, sheep, swine, deer) while the words for the meats derived from them are French (beef, veal, mutton, pork, bacon, venison).

The Germanic form of plurals (house, housen; shoe, shoen) was eventually displaced by the French method of making plurals: adding an s (house, houses; shoe, shoes). Only a few words have retained their Germanic plurals: men, oxen, feet, teeth, children.

2.2 Вам предстоит прослушать рассказ A CONQUERED LAND. Перед прослушиванием убедитесь, что вы знаете

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2.3Прослушайте рассказ и скажите, какие события из восстановленного вами хронологического списка 2.1 упомянуты в нем.

2.4Прослушайте рассказ еще раз и вставьте пропущенные слова.

What we know as the English language was born out of ________

_________ and later spread across the world by invasion. From the fifth century AD onwards, waves of invaders from ___________

_____________ came across the North Sea to England. They were

___________ ___________ _____________ and came from present-day Germany and Scandinavia. They drove the _________ _________

_______________ of England westwards into those areas known today as Wales, Cornwall, Cumbria and the Scottish borders. They established themselves and ________ ____________ in the territory the Celtic speakers had occupied. The resulting mixture of Germanic and Scandinavian languages became the__________ __________ ___

_____________.

In___________, William the Conqueror led the Norman French invasion of England. For a period of nearly 300 years French became the_________ _______, although English continued to be spoken by the

__________ ___ _________ _________. Modern English has its main origins in the _______________ ___ ________ _________ __________

Anglo-Saxon and French.

2.4 Прочитайте текст о следующем этапе развития английского и расскажите, кто такой Чосер.

MIDDLE ENGLISH

It wasn't till the 14th Century that English became dominant in Britain again. In 1399, King Henry IV became the first king of England since the Norman Conquest whose mother tongue was English. By the end of the 14th Century, the dialect of London had emerged as the standard dialect of what we now call Middle English. Chaucer wrote in this language. He has been called the greatest English poet before Shakespeare. It is difficult for even English-speakers to read and understand his writings well.

Can you understand these lines:

"Whan that Aprille with his shoures swote

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The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote..."

In modern English this is:

"When April with his sweet showers has struck to the roots the dryness of March.."

This 'Middle English' was very different in different parts of the country, and of course travel was limited in those days. But another big revolution was coming - the printing press. Just as radio, television, video, and computers, have changed communication in our time, so did printing after about 1500 AD. Now there was a common language in print, as well as access to the old languages of Latin and Greek.

2.5 Прочитайте текст о современном этапе развития английского и расскажите, как пополняется лексический состав современного английского языка.

MODERN ENGLISH

Modern English began around the 16th century. Now came the 'Renaissance' in Europe - a time of great advance of learning and culture. By this time, English was not very different from the English used today. And the most famous person to write in English in this period was William Shakespeare (1564-1616). His insight into human nature, and his gift for using words, make him possibly the most famous playwright of all time! Having in his hands such a new rich language must have helped him too.

Since the time of Shakespeare, English has continued to change. Settlers from Britain moved across the world - to the USA, Australia, New Zealand, India, Asia and Africa, and in each place, the language changed and developed, and took in words from other local languages. For example, 'kangaroo' and 'boomerang' are native Australian Aborigine words, 'juggernaut' and 'turban' came from India.

With the increase in communication, travel, radio and television, all these different types of English have mixed. So in Britain now, because of American and Australian TV programming, we use many parts of Australian and American English. And words from many other languages - French, German, Spanish, Arabic, even Nepali - have been borrowed. So English continues to change and develop, with hundreds of new words arriving every year to produce, what many people believe, is the richest of the world's languages.

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2.6 Подготовьте и проведите ролевую игру «Экзамен по истории английского языка».

1.Choose the examination board of two or three people.

2.While students revise the subject the examinators make up examination questions on the history of English to control students’ knowledge. Questions should be written on examination cards.

3.Each student chooses a card and answers the question. The examinators can ask more questions to the student.

4.Finally each student gets a mark (bad, satisfactory, good, excellent).

UNIT 3

STUDYING ENGLISH

3.1 Обсудите следующие утверждения в группе:

согласитесь или опровергните, докажите свою точку зрения.

•Everybody should speak at least two languages.

•In the future there won’t be so many different languages in the world.

•Tourists in my country should make an effort to speak my language.

•Life would be easier if all countries spoke the same language.

•I think learning languages is really important these days.

•Girls are normally better at learning foreign languages than boys!

•If languages disappear, different ways of thinking also disappear.

•I would like to know more foreign languages.

•Some languages are more important than others.

•English is an ‘international language’.

•Knowing foreign languages helps you to get a good job.

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3.2Дайте развернутые ответы на следующие вопросы.

1.When do children start learning foreign languages in Russia?

2.Why do people learn foreign languages in Russia?

3.What is a distinguishing feature of English?

4.Is English an easy language to learn?

5.What do you think is the most difficult about English?

6.Why are foreign languages important for specialists?

7.What kind of foreign language do specialists have to know?

3.3 Найдите и прочитайте ответы на вопросы из упр. 3.2. Сравните их с вашими ответами.

A- English belongs to a group of Germanic languages. Thus German is relatively close to English. At the same time England had numerous contacts with France, so French had tremendous influence on English. Today a person who knows both English and French will easily find numerous similarities in these languages. Those who already know English will have less difficulties learning French.

B- Russia is integrating into the world community and the problem of learning English for the purpose of communication is especially urgent today. In Russia people learn English to be able to exchange the latest information concerning science, technology and commerce with their colleagues; to be able to read foreign newspapers and books. Learning foreign languages is especially popular among young people. For them English is a way of exploring a completely new world. A person who travels a lot also needs English. Even in the countries where English is not an official language people will generally be able ID understand it.

C- Much depends on the parents. Some children start to learn foreign languages very early, in kindergartens for example. They are taught ABC English there: they sing songs, recite nursery rhymes and learn to construct some phrases. Others start learning languages at school. At some specialised schools foreign languages are taught from the second to the eleventh class. But generally pupils learn foreign languages-from the fifth to the eleventh class.

D- Yes, it is. Basically English is an easier language to learn than almost any other language. Its grammar is not difficult at all.

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E- The richness of the vocabulary makes English a difficult language. Moreover, spelling and pronunciation make trouble. Another thing is that Russian and English are very different. It is not easy for a Russian to learn how to use definite and indefinite articles properly because there are no articles in Russian. In this context it should be said that the Germans and the French have less difficulties with English.

F- Specialists have to know that kind of English which will help them to solve their professional problems. They need English for specific purposes. It has been established that there are important differences between, say. the English of commerce and that of engineering. That is why a great deal of English courses for specific groups of learners have been developed. The discovery that language varies from one situation of use to another allowed to determine the features of the specific situations making them the basis of the learners course. Today specialist of different branches of sciences and professionals can learn English for their specific purposes. Nowadays there are English courses for Biology, Geography, Law, History, Mathematics, Medicine, Economy, and other sciences.

G- Specialist should know foreign languages to communicate with their colleagues at the conferences, through books and journals or the Internet. Today it is not enough for a professional to know only one foreign language. That is why many young people who begin to think about their future early start learning several languages. For Russian specialists it is good to know not only English, but German and French as well. Undoubtedly, English is number one language that specialists should learn.

3.3 Вы на уроке английского. Расскажите подробно, чем вы занимаетесь в данный момент.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW?

Для этого вам потребуется

Present Continuous Tense.

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3.4Найдите в тексте все глаголы в Continuous и объясните их употребление.

3.5Познакомьтесь с данной информацией.

The exclamation shows surprise: As “Oh! How pretty! Ah! How wise!”

3.6 Сделайте синтаксический анализ предложений по данной схеме

1.English is an official language in 55 countries.

2.In many others it is the language of business, commerce and technology.

3.Nobody can learn English for you.

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4.She was making a dinner at that time.

5.The students were taking their exams from 9 till 12 o’clock.

6.English has German and French roots.

7.Many words have been formed from Latin and ancient Greek.

8.In England I found two difficulties.

9.In those days I put this down to my lack of knowledge of English.

10.Most world languages have contributed some words to English at some time, and the process is being reversed now.

3.7 Неформальный язык называется сленгом. В правой колонке найдите эквиваленты для сленговых слов из левой колонки.

3.8Замените сленговые слова на более формальные.

"My mate can be really thick sometimes. He stopped to get some fags and left the car open. He talked to the bird in the shop for about five minutes, and some guy nicked his stereo and two hundred quid from the car. Then he called the cops - but what can they do?"

3.9Замените формальные слова на сленговые.

I’ve got a friend. He’s a really good young man. Last week we made friends with two nice girls. In fact they are Australian.

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3.10 Текст, который вам предстоит прочитать, написан

в шуточной форме. Однако, как известно, в каждой шутке есть доля правды. Прочитайте текст и скажите, какие сведения, полезные для изучающих английский, можно

извлечь и какие выводы можно сделать.

LANGUAGE

By G. Mikes

When I arrived in England I thought I knew English. After I'd been here an hour, I realized that I did not understand one word. In the first week I picked up a tolerable working knowledge of the language and the next seven years convinced me gradually but thoroughly that I would never know it really well, let alone perfectly. This is sad. My only being that nobody speaks English perfectly.

Remember that those five hundred words an average Englishman uses are far from being the whole vocabulary of the language. You may learn another five hundred and another five thousand and yet another fifty thousand and still you may come across a further fifty thousand you have never heard of before and nobody else either.

If you live here long enough you will find out to your greatest amazement that the adjective nice is not the only adjective the language possesses, in spite of the fact that in the first three years you do not need to learn or use any other adjectives. You can say that the weather is nice, a restaurant is nice, Mr Soandso* is nice, Mrs Soandso's* clothes are nice, you had a nice time, and all this will be very nice.

Then you have to decide on your accent. The easiest way to give the impression of having a good accent or no foreign accent at all is to hold an unlit pipe in your mouth, to mutter between your teeth and finish all your sentences with the question: 'isn't it?' People will not understand much, but they are accustomed to that and they will get a most excellent impression.

*Mr Soandso, Mrs Soandso - мистер такой-то, миссис такая-то

tolerable – терпимый; pick up - зд. научиться ч-л. быстро, нахвататься; convince – убеждать, thoroughly – тщательно, consolation – утешение, possess – обладать, in spite of the fact that –

несмотря на то, что; to give the impression – производить впечатление, to mutter – бормотать, to be accustomed – привыкать

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