3.5. Тексты для самостоятельной работы по теме «Our City»

ТЕМАТИКА ОБЩЕНИЯ: 1.Общее и различное в странах и национальных культурах.

2. Международный туризм.

3. Мировые достижения в искусстве и архитектуре.

4. Мир природы. Охрана окружающей среды.

TRANSLATION

Technology and Culture

Changes in technology bring changes in culture. A good example is the car. Before cars and buses, most people couldn’t live far from their work, so there were two types of people: town people and country people, with two different cultures. But in the 1900s, town workers could get the bus or drive to work. So people started to live in new suburbs (areas between the town and the country). Life in the suburbs was different from town life and country life, so a new culture grew up – suburban culture.

Cars changed town culture, too. Before cars and buses, walking was the main way of getting around, and most people never went far from their homes. So people often saw their neighbours in the street. Most people knew every family in their street and could name every person. Cars changed that. Now, for the first time in history, most of us do not know the people in our street.

WRITING TASK

Write about the changes in technology. What type of a person are you: town person or country person?

TRANSLATION

Travel and Tourism

What’s the difference between travel and tourism? Being a traveller is more than just being a holidaymaker. A holiday is just a short time away, and it normally involves relaxation. Tourists stay in holiday resorts, not travellers. Travellers go for the experience and their journeys are usually much longer and more challenging. For example, travellers tend to avoid tourist traps and like to go off the beaten track to discover new places. Travel is an age-old phenomenon, but tourism is a relatively recent invention. Thomas Cook is often described as the first travel agent because he arranged the first “package tour”: a 19-kilometre trip for 500 people, in 1841.

Going overseas in order to experience a different way of life is what many people think of as travel, but travel does not necessarily mean going abroad. How many people can say they have visited every part of their own country? Many people who live in vast countries such as Russia and the USA have only visited a small part of their own country, and so domestic travel is also very exciting.

Some people can’t travel or don’t like the physical reality of travelling to faraway destinations. These days it is easy to be an “armchair traveler”. People can visit distant corners of the world or even little known parts of their own country without leaving their living rooms. Television documentaries make the world a small place and some people argue that travel is no longer necessary. Perhaps soon people will use interactive computer programmes and virtual travel will become common. Enthusiasts argue that by doing this we will have all the benefits of travel without the inconvenience.

WRITING TASK

Write about active or virtual tourism. How much of your own country have you visited?

TRANSLATION