Английский язык. Сборник текстов и заданий. Уровень Pre-intermediate. Учебно-методическое пособие

МОСКОВСКИЙ ГУМАНИТАРНЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ Кафедра иностранных языков

АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК

Сборник текстов и заданий

Уровень Pre-intermediate

Издательство Московского гуманитарного университета 2016

3

Welcome to the Notting Hill Carnival: the greatest carnival in Britain

Every spectator is a participant

London is one of the greatest capitals in the world. We all know about the British Museum, the Tower of London and Big Ben. But there is more to London than meets the eye.

Every August London is home to the great Notting Hill Carnival — the largest arts festival in Europe and second largest carnival in the world. It is a fantastic event, which is open to everyone and absolutely free! The Carnival has been held on the last weekend of August since 1966 and is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

HISTORY

This great festival has its roots in the carnivals of the Caribbean, especially Trinidad.

In Trinidad today, the carnival is the main event in the calendar. It starts after Christmas and reaches its most exciting moments during the last two days before Ash Wednesday. Then all work stops and crowds move through the streets, dancing and singing and wearing all sorts of wild costumes. But it hasn’t always been that way.

In the 1800s, during the days of slavery and the British Empire, many black slaves were brought to Trinidad from Africa. They worked on sugar plantations and their life was very hard.

Their white masters didn’t allow them to sing, dance or wear their national costumes. They were forbidden to be in the streets after dark. The only time the slaves were allowed to play musical instruments was during the imported European Carnival that was held six weeks before Easter. But even then, black people could only take part in it to entertain their white masters.

In 1833, when slavery was abolished, the slaves stormed to the streets to celebrate their freedom. The slaves who had had cruel masters made masks and costumes to make fun of them. It was their first real opportunity to express their feelings about slavery and they did it through dancing and singing.

4

Soon people from all over Trinidad started to take part in these street celebrations. They became experts in the art of costume making, steel drumming and calypso (a folk song telling a story).

In the 1950-60s many Trinidadians immigrated to Britain in the hope of getting a job and making a home. They made good nurses, conductors and drivers, but many of them were unemployed. Life was hard for them as there was a lot of racism inequality. Besides, they missed the warmth and the blue skies of the Caribbean. So one day, remembering their great festivals back home, the Trinidadians decided to organize a street procession in Notting Hill to boost their spirits.

CARNIVAL TODAY

From that small procession through the streets with just a few people in costume playing music and dancing in the 1960s, a huge multi-cultural arts festival has evolved. Up to two million people attend it every year!

Today’s festival has many of the original elements of the Trinidad Carnival. The most popular of these are the costume parade (also known as the Mas, from Masquerade), the calypso and soca bands. Soca is a more recent musical form and is very popular. It is a mixture of soul and calypso that has been adapted by the second, third and even fourth generation Caribbeans. It is now the music of Notting Hill Carnival.

MusiciansandartistsfromallovertheworldtakepartintheCarnival. There have been groups from as far as Afganistan, Bangladesh, Brazil and even Russia. Everybody is welcome!

Although the Carnival aims to celebrate the cultural traditions of its founders, it is open to all modern trends.

The other thing that the Carnival is famous for is food. You can try out goat curry, fried bananas, coconut juice, and the legendary jerk chicken — with more hot spices than you have ever thought possible.

The motto of the Notting Hill Carnival is “Every Spectator is a participant”, so tourists and visitors are invited to join in and dance.

There is only one group of people who don’t enjoy the Carnival, and these are the policemen. For them, the Carnival is two days of very hard work. With a busy event like that, safety of participants is very

5

important. Crowd control is a major concern. Things like providing enough toilets are also not to be overlooked! The Carnival is also a great place for pickpockets. Each year, the police issue the Carnival Code, a set of rules which all participants are advised to follow. These are some of these rules:

Enjoy!

Enjoy Carnival — Jump and Chill. Come early, leave early.

Plan your travel arrangements but be flexible.

Be safe!

Tell the police if you see an incident Stay with your friends.

Look out for your kids — it gets very crowded!

Respect!

Respect others: don’t be the 1% that ruins carnivals for others. Keep the neighbourhood clean. Don’t turn people’s front gardens

into public toilets.

Vocabulary сarnival — карнавал spectator — зритель

participant — участник

to meet the eye — привлекать внимание anniversary — годовщина

Caribbean — острова Карибского моря Trinidad — остров Тринидад

Ash Wednesday — среда на первой неделе великого поста slavery — рабство

empire — империя

to forbid (forbade; forbidden) — запрещать Easter — Пасха

to abolish — отменять opportunity — возможность

to express one’s feelings — выражать свои чувства steel drumming — игра на стальных барабанах

6

calypso — калипсо (вид песни)

they made good nurses — из них получались хорошие сиделки inequality — неравенство

to boost one’s spirits — поднимать настроение to evolve — развиваться

soca — сока (вид песни)

soul — соул (африканская музыка) trend — направление

to try out — пробовать

goat curry — мясо козленка в соусе карри

jerk chicken — вяленый цыпленок с большим количеством специй spice — специя, пряность

major concern — главная забота

overlook — игнорировать, просмотреть, пропустить pickpocket — вор-карманник

to jump and chill — расслабляться to look out for — присматривать за

Tasks on the text and vocabulary

Exercise 1. Answer the questions. Try not to look at the text.

1.What is the Notting Hill Carnival?

2.How old is the Carnival?

3.When is it held on?

4.Where does the Carnival come from?

5.How did slaves express their feelings about slavery when it had been abolished?

6.How did this tradition come to Britain?

7.What is the music at the Carnival?

8.What are the other two things the Carnival is famous for?

9.What is the motto of the Carnival? What does it mean?

10.Who don’t enjoy the Carnival? What do they do during the Carnival?

11.What do the police issue each year? Can you name some of the rules?

7

Exercise 2. Answer the questions about you.

1.Would you like to visit Notting Hill Carnival? Why/Why not?

2.Have you ever been to any Carnival? When and where? What did you like? What didn’t you like?

Exercise 3. Translate the following pieces from the text into Russian in a written form.

1.History

2.Carnival today

Exercise 4. Retell the text.

Exercise 5. Complete the sentences with the right word from the box.

1.__________ was forbidden many years ago.

2.We are having a great __________ this weekend. Our city is celebrating its 100 __________.

3.“Faster, Higher, Stronger” is a __________ of the Olympic Games.

4. Speaking about career you should know that because of __________ a young woman doesn’t have as many __________

as a man does.

5. If my dog could speak, it would say that it had the best __________.

6.A lot of __________ will take part in this show.

7.Yesterday evening was a rock concert. There were more than 2 thousand __________.

8.Mr. Brown is a __________ of our club. It’s absolutely free for everyone.

8

Exercise 6. Fill in the gaps with prepositions.

1.Friends always make fun ___ me.

2.Sportsmen___all ___theworld aretaking part ___acompetition this month, which is for sure the main event ___ a sport calendar this year.

3.Our boss is always open ___ new ideas.

4.Many participants of the demonstration went ___ the streets demanding to rise their salary.

5.Switzerland is famous ___ its mountains and a lot of people come there ___ all ___ the world to ski.

6.___ the hope of having a better job he moved to Canada.

7.Be careful and look ___ ___ your things while you are ___

holiday.

8.This spot was turned ___ a beautiful park a few years ago.

9.You should try ___ our special food-fondue.

Optimists do better than pessimists

Researchers have started to study optimism, the curious human habit of expecting good things to happen, often in defiance of reality. Dozens of recent studies show that optimists do better than pessimists in sport, at school and work. They suffer less of depression, achieve more goals, respond better to stress, wage more effective battles against disease and, yes, live longer. Optimists believe in positive future, and it often comes.

The success of optimism has convinced scientists that they should focus less on misery and more on why things go right. Social science now finds itself in almost total darkness about the qualities that make life worth living. Over the past three decades there were 46000 papers in psychology literature on depression and just 400 on joy. But the 21st century will become the time of science of human strength and personal fulfillment.

The American Psychological Association started 2000 with a special issue of journal devoted to optimism and positive psychology.

Such observations that optimists live longer than pessimists lift the spirits. One reason may be that optimists do a better job of staying

9

out of wrong way. Pessimists are usually in bad moods and are more likely to do risky things. They are more prone to accidents, including car wrecks, violence, household troubles and even homicide.

Taylor, the author of the book “Positive Illusions” said researchers know very little about how such an optimistic mood might help the body’s defenses. The key, she said, is that such unrealism “isn’t necessarily bad. It can be wonderful”.

This view has its critics. Some psychologists say that a false sense of security can be dangerous when it comes to taking risks. They say that people can get into serious troubles if they don’t understand the risk they are facing.

Vocabulary

Defiance — пренебрежение in defiance — вопреки

to respond — отвечать

to wage — вести, проводить to wage war — вести войну

to wage campaign — проводить кампанию disease — болезнь

misery — страдание, мучение fulfillment — исполнение

personal fulfillment — реализация своих способностей issue — выпуск

observation — наблюдение to lift — поднимать spirits — настроение

prone (to) — склонный, предрасположенный wreck — крушение, катастрофа

homicide — убийство

Tasks on the text and vocabulary

Exercise 1. Answer the questions. Try not to look at the text.

1.What do the recent studies of optimists and pessimists show?

2.Do optimists believe in positive future?

10