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федеральное агентство по образованию

государственное учреждение высшего профессионального образования

«воронежский государственный университет»

(гоо впо вгу)

READING AND REVIEWING NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

PART 2

Учебное пособие для вузов по специальности 031201 (022600) – Теория и методика преподавания иностранных языков и культур

Составители:

И.М. Бунеева,

И.П. Суслова,

Л.Н. Дудкина.

ВОРОНЕЖ 2006

Утверждено научно-методическим Советом факультета РГФ от 16.05.2006, протокол №5

Науч. редактор: к.п.н., доц. Л.Г. Кузьмина.

Учебное пособие подготовлено на кафедре английской филологии факультета РГФ ВГУ.

Рекомендуется для студентов 5 курса дневного отделения и 6 курса вечернего отделения, обучающихся по специальности 031201 (022600) - Теория и методика преподавания иностранных языков и культур.

PART 2

CONTENTS

Unit 10. Married at 12 ……………………………………………………. 3

Unit 11. Sleeping Beauty ………………………………………………… 7

Unit 12. Life and Death …………………………………………………10

Unit 13. Frank Blake Will Soon Swim Lake Champlain ……………… 14

Unit 14. Lottery Win ……………………………………………………… 16

Appendix 1 A Possible Scheme of Reviewing Newspaper Articles ……... 20

Appendix 2 Useful Vocabulary …………………………………………… 20

Appendix 3 Example Reviewing ……………………………………………21

Appendix 4 Press in Britain ……………………………………………….. 23

Appendix 5 More Articles for Reading and Reviewing …………………... 25

Unit 10 married at 12

1. Before Reading Tasks.

a. What, do you think, is the best age to get married?

b. Are early marriages popular in this country?

c. Words in Context

Choose the meaning of the underlined word or expression based on its use in the sentence.

1. Her tiny fingers grip his rough wrinkled hands.

a. hold a person’s attention b. take a firm hold c. understand

2. … she giggles nervously.

a. laughs in a silly way b. jokes c. laughs loudly.

3. I thought I was floating on top of the sky.

a. was moving lightly or casually b. held up freely on air c. rested on the surface of liquid.

4. She speaks in a slow Kentucky drawl.

a. with drawn-out vowel sound b. lazily c. indistinctly.

5. It is meager by most American standards.

a. quite enough b. scanty in amount c. next to nothing.

6. They also rank as some of the poorest areas in the states.

a. have certain type b. arrange c. grow

7. Unemployment and illiteracy are endemic.

a. commonly found in a particular country, district b. popular c. favoured by people

8. … the squalid housing has to be seen to be believed.

a. degrading b. dirty and unpleasant because of neglect and poverty c. filthy

9. In turn he lets her buy new clothes.

a. continually b. in agitation b. in succession.

10. Down here you don’t go on dates.

a. go out together b. have a social appointment c. mark with a date.

11. It was nothing fancy, just me and him and my mommy.

a. unreasoning b. fantastic c. based on imagination.

12. …. With parental consent there are no restrictions.

a. parents’ will b. parents’ opinion c. parents’ permission.

13. Many parents living on welfare are happy to have one fewer mouth to feed.

a. being supported by a subsidy from the state b. being well-off c. living on a large income.

Read the Following Article

Married at 12: but that’s normal around here Alice looks young enough to be this man’s granddaughter. Amazingly, she’s his wife

Report by Lucy Broadbent

Alice Smith, momentarily shy, reaches for her husband. Her tiny fingers grip his rough and wrinkled hands.

In much the same way as any protective father might reassure a young daughter, he wraps an arm around her to let her know she’s safe. She giggles nervously and kisses his stubbled cheek.

Her husband Elihu is old enough to be her grandfather. He married her four years ago when she was 12 and he was 70. Four years on, they say their marriage is as happy as it ever was.

This is Kentucky, America, where girls frequently marry young. Her mother, sister and cousin all married their husbands by the age of 15. Alice’s story is only unusual because her husband is so old.

«I love Elihu», says Alice, now 16. «Some folks around here think he’s too old for me.

But when the preacher pronounced us man and wife, I thought I was floating on top of the sky somewhere, because I thought that is my wedding day. I’m finally getting married». She speaks in a slow Kentucky drawl, proudly showing off her home. It’s meager by most American standards – three bedrooms and a small living room in what we’d call a fixed-site caravan, set in woodland 20 miles from town.

Alice points out the TV set, running tap water and the dolls which decorate the bedroom. To her, it’s a palace and indeed it is compared with a lot of other homes in this part of Kentucky where running water, indoor toilets and electricity are not the norm. Her own grandmother still has to get water from a public tap.

Kentucky is known in America as The Welfare State. Although the wooded hillsides of Clay County where Alice lives are extremely beautiful, they also rank as some of the poorest areas in the States. Unemployment and illiteracy are endemic and the squalid housing has to be seen to be believed.

«Some people said I was after Elihu’s money when we were married», says Alice. «I said «I don’t want his money, I want him». You love someone when you marry them and then you fall more and more in love when you live together». Alice left school when she married, like most girls who marry young. She says she prefers to take care of Elihu, cooking his meals, cleaning and driving their pick-up truck because his eyesight is bad, rather than read books.

In turn he lets her buy new clothes when she wants and he pays all the bills. Elihu worked down the coal mines for 36 years and they live off his earnings from those days.

Their romance was a brief affair. «Down here you don’t go on dates, you don’t do that much», explains Alice.

«We just started likin’ each other. Elihu just started coming around all the time and I liked him ‘cos he’s friendly with everybody.

One day, after we’d been goin’ together for about a couple of months, Elihu says: «Lets get wed” and I said «okay, let’s go». We went straight to the court house that day.

It was nothing fancy, just me and him and my mommy, and my Aunt Wilma and cousin Tabatha, and that was about it».

The legal age for marrying in Kentucky is 16, but with parental consent there are no restrictions.

Many parents living on welfare are happy to have one fewer mouth to feed.

«I’d been out with a coupla’ other boys – I once went out with Marvin – he was younger», says Alice.

«But I liked Elihu. I think he’s as good looking as a younger man and he’s better to me than any younger man could ever be.

He gives me everything I want and takes care of me. He stays in the house and gives me a roof over my head. I like just being in the same room as he is. As long as he’s with me I’m okay. And I always know he’ll be there.

When I went out with Marvin, he’d go off and I never knew when he’d come back».

Although he says he loves her, Elihu is more realistic – as he should be given the difference in their ages.

He explains that he was married for 45 years to his first wife who died.

«I married again because I was getting old and Alice can take care of me and if I’d married an older woman I’d have to take care of her», he says with a wide smile that displays two solitary front teeth.

«Many girls get married young around here. There’s nothing to it.

We fell in love with each other, otherwise I wouldn’t have married her».

(«Cosmopolitan», September, 1997)