Effective Commenting on the Text (88

Supplement 2

HERE BELOW ARE SAMPLE ONE-LINE THEMATIC TEXTS

TO COMMENT ON

Choosing a career (of a teacher)

1.He teaches ill who teaches all.

2.Experience is the best teacher.

3.Teaching of others, teachers the teacher.

4.Like teacher, like pupils.

5.Every good scholar is not a good school teacher.

6.Time and tide wait for no man.

7.He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches.

8.“Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby!” B. Shaw.

9.A good teacher always leaves something for his pupils to work out for themselves.

10.What is worth doing is worth doing well.

11.There is time for work and time for play.

12.Most of us are given more talents than we realize.

London

1.The streets of London are paved with gold.

2.London Bridge was made for wise men to go over and fools to go under.

3.“London, then great emporium of our isle…” J. Dryden.

4.“Earth has not anything to show more fair...” W. Wordsword. (The implication of the morning beauty of London and particularly its Westminster Bridge.)

5.As long as the ravens live in the Tower so long the English crown will rule.

6.London dominates British life.

7.Trafalgar square is the geographical centre of London.

8.London’s streets are linked with certain activities.

9.Westminster Palace is a true visiting card of London.

10.Traditions maintain our historical memory.

Medicine

1.Nature, time and patience are the three great physicians.

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2.Better use medicines at the outset than at the last moment.

3.Prevention is better than cure.

4.Diseases are price of ill pleasures.

5.Sickness shows us what we are.

6.A disease known is half cured.

7.An apple a day keeps a doctor away.

8.A man must be his own doctor.

9.He who wants health, wants all.

10.Medicines are not meant to be lived by.

Education

1.Much science, much sorrow.

2.A man’s studies pass into his character.

3.What learnt in the cradle lasts till the tomb.

4.Hungry belly has no ears.

5.Diligence is a great teacher.

6.Doubt is the key to knowledge.

7.There is no blindness like ignorance.

8.Happy he who has been able to learn the causes of things.

9.A man may learn wit every day.

10.Better unborn than untaught.

11.“He who nothing questions nothing learns.” T. Fuller.

12.Knowledge is a wild thing and must be hunted before it can be tamed.

Meals

1.One man’s meat is another`s poison.

2.Greedy eaters dig their graves with their teeth.

3.Hunger is the best sauce.

4.The eye is bigger than the belly.

5.An apple-pie without cheese is like a kiss without squeeze.

6.All griefs with bread less.

7.A growing youth has a wolf in his belly.

8.Poultry, veal and fish make the churchyard fat.

9.An apple a day keeps a doctor away.

10.Appetite increases with eating.

Sport

1.It’s comparison that makes men happy and miserable.

2.Win or lose never regret.

3.If you want to test your character then do a marathon.

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4.Children are often the hostages of their parents’ sports ambitions.

5.Televized matches are nothing but second-hand information that lacks the nerve of live presentation.

6.Sportsmen believe in homefield advantage.

7.Once a champion you will be a champion off the field.

8.Sport is abstract and useless muscular work.

9.Big international sport is like showbusiness.

10.Fan movement is a controversial subject.

Geography

1.Geography shapes people’s character.

2.“A beautiful country is a country happily compromising between Nature and Man.” J. Priestley.

3.The country’s economy shouldn’t depend on imported goods.

4.There is no climate in Britain but there is weather.

5.An English summer, two fine days and a thunderstorm.

6.Anglesey is the mother of Wales. (A reference to the fertility of the farming land on the island of Anglesey.)

7.“Whenever I wander, wherever I rove, The hills of the Highland forever I love…” R. Burns.

8.A field requires three things: fair weather, sound seed, and a good ploughman.

9.The world is a mirror; show yourself in it; and it will reflect your image.

10.A Scottish mist will wet an Englishman to the skin.

Travelling

1.Travel broadens the mind.

2.Much travelling teaches how to see.

3.Send a fool to France and he’ll come back a fool.

4.Seeing is believing.

5.Change of scene is the spice of life.

6.The way you choose to travel is in many senses an indication of your personality.

7.So many men, so many minds.

8.Dry bread at home is better than roast meat abroad.

9.Much travel is needed to ripen a man’s rawness (ignorance).

10.One may change a place but not change the mind.

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Supplement 3

SAMPLE MANY-LINE THEMATIC TEXTS

Choosing a career

The problem of choosing a career arises before each schoolleaver. Some of them are quite happy to carry on the family tradition and become a doctor or a lawyer. That means about seven years of training and eventually a comfortable life.

Others complain of great pressure on them to do everything by a certain age. If you are eighteen, you should be at university; if you are twenty-one, you should be starting a job; if you are twenty-five, you should be married. They do not want to start that race right after school and rather prefer a year off — doing something completely different — between school and college. Why not go round the world doing odd jobs on boats or in restaurants. Depending on parents for a living is out of the question.

For those who enjoy working with their hands, who are interested in machines and good at mathematics, engineering may be a good choice for a career. Others find a lot of variety in office work. There you are dealing with people and their problems; there are new situations to cope with all the time.

Many young people consider teaching as a career as they find it rewarding, stimulating and very noble. They say, if you like people you will love teaching. But young people hardly realize the responsibility to be the guardians of the human spirit and the human mind. It will certainly come in the course of time and intellectual maturity.

Before going into the world young people consult their older friends, parents, relations, school career counselors but the final decision is up to them.

* * *

Many young people have a very vague idea of their future career. Some of them dream of a job involving travel, money, a bit of glamour, fashion or something in tourism. Others with a pragmatic idea in mind hope to get a job using the languages as the West has got good trading relations with the East and Asia and translators and interpreters are in need.

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Ambitious young people never kill time and even on holiday take a chance to expand their life experience through a holiday job. Sometimes young people have to begin their career with a disappointment. They did not do as well as they had hoped in the end-of-school exams and some of them start work as the office “dogsbody” doing all the small, boring jobs that no one wants to do. But as the taste of pudding is in its eating, young persons soon realize that one may be efficient and successful doing a modern job for a modern city. There is a chance for office workers to go to college on a “day release” scheme which offers courses in accounting, business, organization and social services.

The career of a social worker may attract those who have always wanted to work with people, as it gives you a chance to deal directly with the old, the sick, the unemployed and the homeless whose problems bring them in to ask for help.

Sadly, to some school-leavers with no taste of learning, no drive, it makes no difference where to work. But the reality is that even for a cleaning job you are expected to be full-trained and highly competent.

In order to avoid difficulties with employment, young people before their Sixth Form (High School) should decide about the choice of the subjects to specialize in, so as to get the right qualifications. It means that if, for example, you want a career in business, you ought to study mathematics, economics and social sciences at school.

But it’s difficult to make a choice at sixteen. It so happens sometimes that a young person comes to a certain decision after a gap year, or having tried different jobs. There are lucky ones who have a vocation, a special feeling that leads them to do a special kind of work. With some girls the solution of all problems may be a successful marriage. After all who said that raising children or housekeeping is not a serious job?

Health Care in Britain

The National Health Service established throughout the United Kingdom is available to everyone. It is paid for by taxes and national insurance, and in general people don’t have to pay for medical treatment. Every person is registered with a doctor in their local area, known as a general practitioner or GP. Patients may make an appointment to see the doctor or may call the doctor out to visit them if they are ill. The general practitioner can invite a Health Visitor to help patients at home. This is a nurse with a

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special training. She gives advice to a patient and arranges the services that other NHS non-medical staff can give to the patient such as: Medical Social Worker who usually works at a hospital where he/she helps patients with their domestic and financial problems; Home Help Worker helping with cooking, cleaning, washing and shopping and Meals-on Wheels Ladies who bring a hot dinner four days a week.

GPs are trained in general medicine but not specialists in any particular subject. If a serious illness develops or diagnosis is difficult, a GP refers a patient to a specialist or calls in a consultant.

Anyone who is very ill can call an ambulance and get taken to hospital for urgent medical treatment. Ambulances are a free service in Britain. The Government helps pay for some medical care for people on low incomes and for old people. But most people buy medical insurance to be treated privately in clinics, health centres and hospitals. The cost of medical insurance and the problems of those who cannot afford it are a very important political subject.

London

London as a big capital city has a lot to offer to its visitors. If you are a museum-lover, you will find many interesting places here: The Tower of London with the Crown Jewels and the Ceremony of the Keys, its ravens and Beefeaters; The British Museum which is sometimes called “a rich treasure-chest” full of things of world historical importance, includes Egyptian antiquities and mummies and ancient Greek art. The Museum of Transport where one can trace the history of transport from the past to the present. It gives children an opportunity to experiment with working models and get an early taste of engineering.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum is housed in Victorian Gentleman’s Lodgings at 221b Baker Street, London. The house was built during Queen Victoria’s reign. The structural features of the house and its interior coincide with the description in the Sherlock Holmes Stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is the reason why lots of visitors to the museum take it for the real residence of the famous characters of Conan Doyle.

From the various articles in the rooms you can tell about the famous resident’s occupation and interests. So a box of make up, Italian priest’s hat, workman’s shabby jacket make you remember that Holmes was a master of disguise. A magnifying glass, a heap

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of newspapers and equipment for chemical experiments tell about his detective work, and a violin suggests his hobby, by the way, a visitor can play on it too. Similarly, there are articles by which you can easily guess about Dr. Watson’s occupation: a stethoscope and blood-pressure kit. Here, in the museum you feel as if you were reading Conan Doyle’s books once again.

Not only big cities are full of museums. If you tour about Southern England, you can find a lot of exciting places, too. Normally local or regional museums are small and divided into three kinds:

1.Those which cover all the aspects of local history, environment, wild-life, where you can find display on geology, natural history and archeology.

2.Those which specialize in rural life, domestic and agricultural old tools, clothes, household goods and machinery that recreate the yesterday of the local life.

3.Memorial museums, devoted to the life and work of an outstanding figure in English art, literature and science. Each English town is proud of its local and regional history; and a warm welcome awaits visitors to its museums.

* * *

Britain’s greatest open zoo is situated in Regent’s Park and is open every day of the year except Christmas Day. More than 8000 animals live at London Zoo. You can see white rhinos, lions, tigers, elephants, wild horses, cheetahs, a giant panda, pelicans, penguins, alligators, dolphins and others. Visitors to the Zoo can ride a camel, pony or donkey, join elephants’ weighing and bath time or enjoy the animal feeding times and see the cows milked. There are cafes, a restaurant and bars for lunches, tea and in-between snacks for visitors.

Soho is a district in the centre of London between Oxford Street and Regent Street. In the 1690s the area of London known as Soe Hoe (the name being derived from the hunting call often heard in the open fields here) began to develop. There appeared new streets, houses, coffee-shops, night clubs, furnished rooms, brothels. Since the middle of the 17th century Soho has absorbed thousands of immigrants, first from France and later from Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

Soho now, colourful and cosmopolitan, is full of restaurants, night clubs, casinos and other places of entertainment. It’s London’s hottest — and coldest — social melting pot. It’s a place of contrasts.

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Homely village and red-light district; workplace and playground; a paradise for gourmands and the place popular with artists, musicians and actors. It is sometimes called “brilliant and wicked”.

* * *

There are many ways of getting around London. You can take a ride in a taxi, London cab, and its “driver” will tell you a lot about the sights of London. A taxi “driver” has to pass a tough taxi exam on the excellent knowledge of London’s attractions which makes him reliable.

If you are not afraid of overcrowded carriages of the London Underground, also known as the Tube, you can certainly travel by Tube, this will save your time: no traffic jams, no bus queues, no standing in the rain.

A double-decker bus tour about London will give you views of London but you must be ready to move at a snail’s pace and end up seeing more traffic jams than sights.

One can take a ride along the Thames in a boat. It also gives an opportunity to have a panorama of London and its bridges which are also closely connected with British history. The most ancient bridge was originally built by the Romans. Later it was rebuilt but fell down. This accident left mark on a nursery rhyme “London Bridge is falling down…” and a proverb “London Bridge was made for wise men to go over and fools to go under”. The Great Fire of London of 1666 broke out by London Bridge and now the “Monument” marks the place.

Tower Bridge was originally built by William the Conqueror and is the only draw bridge across the Thames.

Waterloo Bridge commemorates the historic victory over Napoleon in 1815.

There are still people who prefer walking about London either on their own or with a guide. If you are on your first visit to London you can’t mix such places as Westminster and the City. They say, London is an egg with a double yolk. One of those yolks is Westminster, the other is the old City of London. Indeed, these are two historical centres of the capital. Westminster now is the centre of Parliament and central government, it’s the place where kings and queens are crowned, where they lived and often were buried. The City is the most historic part of the capital. Originally a Roman fort, it gradually turned into a trading centre. Now it is the financial and commercial citadel of the country.

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