Supplementary material for the third - year students. Учебное пособие

Speaking in dialogues

Start your reply with phrases from speaking functions. Discuss the suggested problem in arguments.

Argumentative writing Paragraph 1 – introduce the topic

Paragraph 2-5 (or more) – give the arguments for and against

Paragraph 6 – give the conclusion (don’t mention new ideas, only summarize what you said before)

You should start each paragraph with a topical sentence, as it builds up the central idea of a paragraph. A Topical sentence is in other words a summarizing sentence of a paragraph, which is used to tie up a group sentences in the passage, holding its unity. Generally the topical sentence comes first in a paragraph, serving the purpose to understand the text.

Analysis of the text

1.The logical division (title and summary of events in each part of the text).

2.The mood of the text (lyrical, dramatic, satirical, humorous, romantic,…)

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3.The characteristics of the personages.

4.The main idea and the author’s message in the text.

5.Your personal attitude to the plot, idea…

«Notes on Writing Analysis of the Text

Before wring the analysis of the text you are to read it several times and translate it carefully, writing out the lexical meanings of the words you look up.

Logical division. The text given for the analysis can be logically divided into several parts. You can follow the events, subevents or scenes in the story. The paragraphing can help you. For each logical part you should choose a title which expresses the main thought of the part. Then summarize the part in 2-3 sentences. The mood. Single out one key mood of the story and prove it by the phrases from the text. Usually the key mood helps to disclose the main idea of the text. There can be several minor moods, which depend on your perception of the text. You should also prove it by the text.

The Characters. Describe the characters using direct and indirect methods of characterization in the text. Prove each feature by the text. The structure of the characterization can be as follows: physical appearance, background information (age, education, job, family), personality revealed though: work, attitude to people around, view on life, behaviour. Remember that we can feel the author’s attitude to his character as well.

The main idea. Message is the main idea that a writer wants to communicate in his work through the characters and their behaviour, the physical and emotional background or sometimes through his own generalizing statements. To make it clear and understandable you have to learn how to write the gist.

Gist is commonly understood as the essence or main point (of an article,

paragraph or argument), also as the essential part of a story, novel, or play that helps to understand the main idea» (Аракин, Практический курс английского языка, 1999, стр.203).

Individual Reading

100 pages every month

Listening

One text every week – Tapestry, Soundings

Tactic Suggestions to Students on Writing Analysis, Summary and Essays

«A summary is a clear concise orderly retelling of the contents of a passage or a text and is ordinarily about 1/3 or 1/4 as long as the original.

The student who is in the habit of searching for the main points, understanding them, learning them, and reviewing them is educating himself. The ability to get

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at the essence of a matter is important. The first and most important step in making a summary is reading the passage thoroughly. After it write out clearly in your own words the main points of the selection. Subordinate or eliminate minor points. Retain the paragraphing of the original, unless the summary is extremely short. Preserve the proportion of the original.

Change direct narration to indirect whenever it is possible, use words instead of word combinations and word combinations instead of sentences. Omit figures of speech, repetitions, and most examples. Don't use personal pronouns, use proper names.

Do not introduce any extra material by way of opinion, interpretation or appreciation.

Read the selection again and criticize and revise your words.

Narrative Essay. In narrative essays you are required to tell a story or write about an event. For the essay to be effective you are to follow two steps: introduction and planning.

Instructions

1. You must do all you can to make your essay interesting. To achieve this it is necessary to include incident and details which are drawn from everyday life or which you have imagined. Once you've found something definite to say your essay will be interesting to read.

2.Unity. Just as it is important to connect your sentences within a paragraph, you should make sure that your paragraphs lead on naturally to each other. Do not repeat yourself. Make sure that every paragraph adds something new to the essay.

3.Balance and proportion. The length of a paragraph will depend on what you want to say. However, do not let yourself be carried away by fascinating but unimportant details. Never attempt to write an essay in a single paragraph;

4.Do not address the teacher or make comments on what you want to say like "I do not like the subject and do not know how to begin ..." or "...and now it is time to finish my essay", etc.

5.It is absolutely necessary to read your work through when you have finished writing. While doing so keep a sharp look out for grammatical mistakes.

6.After you've finished your essay choose a suitable short tail. Make sure that it has to do with the subject, but it shouldn't give the reader too much information.

Planning

It is always best to tell things the way in which they happened. Your first paragraph should set the scene. The most exciting part of your story should come at the end, on the way you'll keep the reader in suspense.

The general outline for stories should be as follows: Before the Event.

The Event.

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After the Event.

Before working on your plan try to decide what the main event will be so that you can build up your story round it. It is not always necessary to make out a full detailed plan. But it is wise to note a few ideas under each heading so that you have a fairly clear picture of what you are going to say before you begin writing. Remember that a plan is only a guide.

Descriptive essay.

Introduction is the same as in narrative essay.

Planning. In descriptive essay there is no underlying "story" to hold your composition together so it is necessary to think of a central idea to which everything you describe can be related.

In descriptive writing there is no single event which will keep the reader in suspense as there is in a story. Whether or not your essay will be exciting to read will depend entirely on the interesting details you include. In your first paragraph you should consider the subject in general and deal with details in the paragraphs that follow. Your description may take the form of a personal impression or may be purely imaginary.

The general outline for descriptive essay should be as follows: Introduction.

Development.

Conclusion.

It is absolutely necessary to make out a plan noting but a few ideas under each heading. In this way you will avoid repeating yourself» (Аракин, Практический курс английского языка, 1999, стр.225).

MODULE I TRAVELLING TO EXOTIC PLACES

Part 1 ADDICTIVE THINGS

Ex. 1. This man lost his money gambling in a casino. What evidence shows that he was addicted?

“The first time I gambled, I just stayed for an hour. I didn’t get addicted until the next day. I can honestly say, from that day on, I was in the casino at two o’clock every afternoon, seven days a week, for the next five years, except when I was penniless. It was a complete obsession”

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Ex. 2. What other forms of gambling are there? (roulette, horse-racing, playing cards, playing on the fruit-machines/one-armed bandits, lottery,…)

Ex. 3. Why do people start gambling?

What kind of people gamblers are? (age, sex, background,…)

What kind of help or advice would you give them if they wanted to stop gambling?

Ex. 4. Read the text about a teenager who became addicted to gambling.

Julian’s story

“A quarter of the people who seek the help of Gamblers Anonymous are children addicted to fruit machines.

Julian started playing fruit machines five years ago when he was 13. Since then he has spent more than 20,000 – money he has earned, borrowed or stolen – on what quickly grew into a frightening addiction.

“I was in a bowling alley with friends one day. One of them was playing the electric fruit machines and he kept pestering me to have a go. First I thought it was a waste of money, but somehow I couldn’t keep away. At the beginning I used to spend all my paper-round money on the machines, but then I started selling everything I owned – even my records and tapes. I took money from my parents and sold their things, too. I always told myself it wasn’t really stealing, that I was just borrowing and would pay them back.

“By the time I was 15, I was already spending more than 30 a week on machines. They were my whole life. I used to skive off school every day and play the machine in the local café. I was in a world of my own where nothing else mattered.

“Winning wasn’t even important; I always knew I was going to lose. There was just something about the machines. They became my friends: friends I didn’t owe anything to and who never got annoyed with me. Whatever mood I was in it made no difference to them, we got on fine. I’d go into the arcade feeling tense and excited, but as soon as I started playing I became totally relaxed.

“Sometimes I’d spend 20 on a taxi to get to one of my favourite machines. – the bigger and more complicated the better – and I would spend a solid eight or nine hours playing. When I ran out of money I felt completely shattered and was desperate to get more to carry on.

“The crunch came the Christmas before I left school when I was 16. I was so frantic to get some money I stole my parents’ antiques and sold them. When they found out, they made me show them each shop where I had sold the antiques and they bought them all back. I left home after that, rented a room and found a job in an insurance company. After I had paid for food and rent I spent every penny I

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earned on machines – at first it was 350 a month, then it went up to 700 a month.”

Julian is one of the lucky ones. He hasn’t played for 5 months now and is determined to keep it that way. “I had just split up with my girl-friend and was feeling very upset. Quite suddenly I realized how much pain I had put other people through – it made me feel so bad I wanted to die. It was incredibly difficult, but I stopped playing completely. I didn’t get any help – I did it on my own. Now I’ll have to live with all the damage I’ve caused and try to rebuild things. I’m tempted all the time but I know if I go back it’ll destroy me.

“If you haven’t been through it you can’t understand what it’s like. It started off as a bit of fun, but it’s like a silent drug that eats you up from inside” (Wellman G., Wordbuilder, 1998, p.66).

Ex. 5. Find out:

How old he was when he started gambling.

Why he began gambling.

What he gambled his money on.

Where he got the money from.

Why he liked it.

Why he gave up.

How he stopped.

If he misses it.

Ex. 6. What is the significance of these numbers: 13; 20,000; 5 years; 30; 20; 16; 700; 5 months?

Ex. 7. Explain the underlined words in the text.

Ex. 8. Organize TV interview with Julian.

Ex. 9. Read Jeff's Linda's and Toyah’s stories

Jeff’s Story

We thought that a computer would be the ideal gift for our three-year-old son because it would be educational. My husband, Jeff, brought one home and set it up on the table in the living room.

Switching on the machine, Jeff started to play the space invaders game that came with it. I joined in competing against him. It was good fun for half an hour but then I grew bored and watched TV instead.

However, Jeff remained glued to the screen for the whole evening, and the next day he stayed up until 2 a.m. From then on, first thing every morning he

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sat at the computer, spooning cornflakes into his mouth while he played. At night I’d cook a meal and he would eat it off his knees so he didn’t have to stop his games. He stopped talking to me and our little boy, Owen, and he lost interest in everything else. When he wasn’t asleep or at work he played games. He’d stay up until 3 a.m., becoming exhausted but unable to tear himself away. He could hardly drag himself to work in the mornings. One day he arrived home unexpectedly and said he’d lost his job. The factory manager had complained about his lateness and Jeff walked out. He wasn’t concerned that his family would have to survive on the dole. Now he could play his computer games all day long without work getting in the way.

I struggled to run the household. Jeff didn’t lift a finger to help, nor did he search for work. Yet before the computer came, he’d been so considerate. We survived on 77 a fortnight. Yet he thought nothing of blowing 20 – our weekly food bill – on a new game.

Jeff was like an alcoholic – an addict. Yet there was no support group to turn to, no Computer Addicts Anonymous. I love my husband deeply. We’ve been married for ten years and I thought we’d be together forever. And he flatly refuses to believe he has a problem.

Lynda’s Story

I live with my family and do things like sneaking down first in the morning to open their letters. I’ve even stolen letters I see sticking out of neighbours’ letterboxes. My family are sick of coming out of rooms and finding me standing by the door eavesdropping.

When I go to friends’ houses I look through their personal belongings and if ever I’m alone in a house I can’t help myself looking in drawers and cupboards. I go through wastepaper bins and I can spend hours hiding behind the curtains and watching what the neighbours are up to. They are always complaining and my parents are at their wits’ end.

I know it’s irrational but I do it because I’m afraid something terrible will happen if I don’t keep a check on people. Being addicted to snooping isn’t that unusual. I’m having a behavioural therapy at the moment and my therapist has told me of a woman who would dig through her neighbours’ rubbish at the council dump. At least I’m not that bad.

Toyah’s Story

“Before

I used to be completely hooked on caffeine. In a normal day I used to drink 15 to 20 cups of coffee, as well as at least one can of diet cola. If I was lucky I managed to get to sleep at bedtime, but 1 used to wake up at about 4.00 a.m. and get up and do some work. After an hour or so I would go back to bed and

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sleep until 8.00 a.m. To be honest I didn't use to feel 100%, but I didn't connect my poor health with the caffeine I was drinking. In fact, I was absolutely convinced I needed it, because of my incredibly busy lifestyle as a singer.

However, earlier this year I got ill when I was working abroad. I couldn't eat anything, and the only thing I could drink was water. My appetite returned after two days, but suddenly the idea of drinking coffee or cola still made me feel sick, and I haven't drunk a cup since then.

After

Although I thought it was going to be really hard, I got used to living without caffeine straight away, and in fact after the first few weeks I started to feel much better than I ever had before. I found that I was beginning to sleep better, and that I had much more energy. But the most dramatic change I noticed was what happened to my skin. The tension lines relaxed, and my face began to look like it looked when I was a teenager. Everybody started to tell me how much younger I looked! When I realized that chocolate also contains caffeine, I decided I had to give that up too. That was difficult as I've always been really keen on sweet things but now I'm used to it - I usually have a piece of fruit instead of chocolate.

And there was another really unexpected benefit from giving up caffeine - my memory, which used to be embarrassingly bad, has improved considerably, so I never miss appointments any more!” (Harmer J., Rossner R., More than Words. Book 1, 2004, p.77).

Ex. 10. State their problems

Ex. 11. Read Jeff’s story and underline the correct answer.

The computer was a gift for Julie/Jeff/Owen. Jeff played with the computer at night/in the morning/both. Jeff lost his job/walked out of his job. Jeff was upset/not worried about being out of work. Jeff admits/doesn’t admit he has a problem. There is/There isn’t an organization to help people like Jeff. Julie has divorced/ is still married to Jeff.

Ex. 12. Read Lynda’s story and complete the sentences.

She sneaks…She steals…She eavesdrops…She looks through…If she’s alone in a house she…She hides behind…

Ex. 13. Answer the following questions.

How do Lynda’s parents feel about her addiction? What do the neighbours do? What is she doing about her problem?

Ex. 14. Explain the words and expressions in bold from the texts.

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Ex. 15. Prove this quote

“Gambling wrecks lives, smashes marriages, breaks hearts”.

To wreck, smash, break mean destroy. What are their collocations? (a promise, a ship, a car, a habit, a rule, a career, a window, the law, your chances, a plane,…)

Ex. 16. Read the text about Las Vegas

“Las Vegas is a casino empire with yearly revenues over six billion dollars. This is where America lets its hair down, and gambling has the status of an official religion. The industry greets you like a salesman the moment you step off the plane. Fruit machines in the Arrivals Hall, the sound of handles, reels spinning, and the sound of dollars cascading into trays. And in Departures video poker as far as you can see, as people wait reluctantly for their planes.

Downtown, in the suburban luxury, the dominance of the big casinos is absolute. If you don’t like gambling stay out of Vegas, is the clear message. The city with its swelling population of more than 700,000 is built on the proposition that every American likes to chance his luck.

The city centre is in fact a collection of casinos, motels, souvenir shops, porn cinemas and pawnbrokers. Occasionally a spire intrudes – the churches are unusually well-attended – but the wise clergyman knows which subjects are best avoided on Sundays. Much of the city looks like a parking lot – areas of concrete which mock the meaning of its Spanish name: The meadows.

Caesars Palace, the most famous casino theme-park, describes itself as an opulent Greco-Roman fantasy land and the 85 acre complex is, in appearance, a cross between a re-creation of the Roman Forum, with Greek additions, and a multi-storey car park. It’s approached by moving walkways of white marble, overlooking fountains and palm trees. Throughout, there are enormous reproductions of classical statues – especially of Julius Caesar.

The actual gambling goes on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Roulette, baccarat, craps, pontoon and poker are all played for stakes that can sometimes exceed $100,000, under the practiced gaze of dealers, bankers and security men. There are also a variety of different machines. ‘We pick our machines each morning and we stay on ‘em,’ one retired Alabaman told me. ‘I figure, by the end of the day, it owes me.’ His wife is doing better than him. She feeds in handfuls of dollar tokens and with surprising regularity the machine is sick over her, spewing out as much as $20 a time. A small tub is already threequarters full of her winnings.

‘I just love Caesar,’ she confesses, needlessly. ‘We come here three or four times a year.’

It turns out that they once won $600 but their goal remains the Big One.

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Two years previously a housewife from Detroit won spectacularly. There had been no big winners for some time and the jackpot stood at $2 million when she pulled the lever. The money literally engulfed her, but she didn’t go crazy. She bought a mink coat, had champagne for breakfast and had her hair done at the casino salon. Then she went home to Michigan.

These days there’s even a zone for the elderly, on the banks of the Colorado River. Here, senior citizens, with their wealth of savings and a reckless urge to ‘do it just one more time’ park their caravans and move inside to ‘work the machines’. So far there’s no children’s version planned – but if it does ever happen it’ll be in Las Vegas and nowhere else. You can bet your bottom dollar” (Vince M., First Certificate Language Practice, 2003, p. 55).

Ex. 17. Underline two of the following which are not card games: poker, pontoon, chess, roulette, baccarat, snap, draughts. Why are not they played at the casino?

Ex. 18. Define the words and expressions in bold from the text.

Ex. 19. Answer the questions

In which US state is Las Vegas?

How much money is made there each year from gambling in casinos? What kind of gambling takes place at the airport?

What is the population of Las Vegas? What are three typical buildings in the city? What does much of the city look like?

Ex. 20. Complete the sentences

Caesar Palace describes itself as…

The gambling takes place…a year

People sometimes gamble more than…

The Alabaman woman keeps…

A housewife from Detroit once won…

She spent her money on…

Next to the Colorado River there’s a place for…

Ex. 21. Write out all the special vocabulary related to casinos and playing.

Ex. 22. Translate into English.

1. Многие люди, которые пристрастились к азартным играм, ищут анонимной помощи. 2. Сначала вы играете на игровых автоматах для

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