Осознанное чтение тексты и задания = Mindful Reading texts and tasks. Учебное пособие = Textbook

PART 2. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS: NON-FICTION

6.Can you characterize the figure of the author and specify some features of his individual style?

7.What stylistic device(s) does the author use when comparing Thanksgiving to an old friend, and why? Do you find it effective?

Text 2.13

Beyond the text: Matching

1)commuters

2)locusts

3)high-strung

4)deportment

5)the Corn Belt

6)the Consolidated Edison Company

7)indignity

8)to devour

a)one of the largest energy companies in the US

b)a region of the Midwestern United States covering Illinois, Iowa, etc

c)insects which destroy crops

d)to eat eagerly and greedily

e)a feeling of shame and humiliation

f)people regularly travelling between work and home

g)very nervous and easily upset

h)the way a person behaves

There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter – the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last – the city of final destination, the city

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that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York’s highstrung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy to set up a small grocery store in a slum, or a young girl arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference; each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company.

(taken from the essay The Three New Yorks by E. B. White)

Tasks

1.Characterize the text and its central idea

2.Consider the composition of the given paragraph, where does the author place the topic sentence? What other compositional scheme(s) of building a paragraph do you know?

3.What linguostylistic means does the author use to provide integrity of the text?

4.Make a list of emotionally coloured words, which are them are the most skillfully chosen, in your opinion?

5.Do you find this idea relatable to the place where you live?

Text 2.14

Beyond the text: Matching

1)to wrack one’s mind

2)to come up with

3)to stand on the threshold of

4)to extol

5)to ditch

6)a quirk

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PART 2. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS: NON-FICTION

7)an anvil

8)to take the wheel

9)to be hard put to

10)executive bathroom

a)to take the trouble to do something

b)to think of a plan or idea

c)to praise enthusiastically

d)to make a great mental effort

e)to get rid of something that you do not need

f)to take control of something

g)perks of a prestigious job

h)a heavy block of iron or steel

i)a peculiar of behavior

j)to be at the start of a new and important time

The Fringe Benefits of Failure,

and the Importance of Imagination

… Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.

I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become.

I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension. I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.

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So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents’ car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.

I cannot remember telling my parents I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.

I would like to make it clear that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.

What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.

(taken from J. K. Rowling’ Harvard Commencement Speech)

Beyond the text: Cultural aspect

Commencement speech (commencement address) is a speech given to graduating students when they are awarded their degrees. It is usually delivered by a special guest, most often a notable figure, and its aim is to deliver some powerful message inspiring and motivating students.

Valedictorian speech is a speech delivered by a valedictorian (the student with the highest grades in the graduating class) and its key goal is to express a moving farewell message. The word ‘valedictorian’ comes from Latin ‘valedicere’, meaning a formal farewell.

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PART 2. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS: NON-FICTION

Tasks

1.Read or watch the complete version of J.K. Rowling’s commencement speech

2.What typical features of oratory can you trace in the text?

3.What is the key idea of the speech?

4.What functions does the speech perform?

5.What emotions is it likely to arouse?

6.Comment on the style-forming features of the speech.

7.Is the text easy to follow?

8. What linguistic means and stylistic devices characterize J.K. Rowling’s style?

Text 2.15

Beyond the Text: Matching

1)indigenous

2)red tape

3)burnout

4)to put blinders on

5)sustainable

a)the state of having no energy because of working too hard

b)able to continue over a period of time

c)official rules and processes that seem unnecessary and delay results

d)belonging to the country

e)to be oblivious to what is happening around

Hi everyone, my name is Jen Beaupre, and I’m an Indigenous K-5 teacher here in BC, Canada. I’ve been classroom teaching for just over 10 years, and my career in education has been very up and down. I have loved it at times, have felt fulfilled, and happy in my classrooms, but I’ve also experienced some pretty tough times.

Like a lot of other educators, I’ve felt frustrated with all of the red tape we have to manage, I’ve felt unheard, felt the anxiety of teaching through COVID, and have felt very underappreciated. So

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I’ve had a long rollercoaster ride on the education train, just like so many others.

But having experienced all of the emotions, I would still do it over again. I’ve learned a lot about myself during my career, and I’m a better person for it.

And I think one of the more important things I learned is to do teaching my own way. I learned that we don’t need to do it all, or live up to all of my colleagues and admin’s expectations. And that’s a very difficult thing to let go of. You don’t need everyone to love you, especially on the terms of your productivity or your quantity of work. And you’ll lead yourself to burnout quickly if you overwork yourself or strive, consciously or unconsciously, for people to like you. I learned that the hard way.

And when I experienced my own burnout from doing all the things, for all the people, except for myself, I developed a really negative mindset towards education. And to move through this negativity, I discovered that we have to get clear with what we need and want to have a sustainable career. So for me, that looked like putting some blinders on and prioritizing my own thoughts and feelings, so that I could do more of what made me happy. And I made a big shift in understanding that I was important too.

So, in my day to day, this looked like giving myself permission to go slower, I was more mindful with what was important to me and I upheld those values. And I tried to do more of what I loved in my classroom. For example, I’m an artistic person, so I incorporated more art into my lessons so that I would enjoy teaching more.

Wherever you are on your journey, and whatever season you’re experiencing at the moment, I hope you come to realize that your feelings and wellbeing matter too, just like any other human. And give yourself the permission to uphold the values you need to support your happiness. So you can continue, or re-find, a sustainable career in education.

We care for others, but we also need to care for ourselves.

(https://blog.teacherspayteachers.com/pep-talks-all-teachers-need- to-hear-right-now/)

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PART 2. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS: NON-FICTION

Beyond the text: Cultural note

A pep talk is a short speech intended to encourage people to work harder or try to win a game or competition. The word ‘pep’ is believed to have come from the word ‘pepper’, which is used in the sense of energy and spirit.

K-5 – a term for the education period from kindergarten to fifth grade.

BC, Canada – British Columbia, one of 10 Canada’s provinces.

Tasks

1.What is the subject matter of the given speech? What is its primary function?

2.What style-forming features of the text can you identify?

3.How is the personality of the author reflected in the text?

4.Who is the speech aimed at?

5.Characterize the linguistic features of the text.

6.Do you find this pep talk successful? Why (not)?

Section 4: The Media Style

Typology of media texts

▪news

▪views

▪features

▪advertisements

Beyond the text: Matching

1)broadsheet

2)tabloid

3)the editor

4)a reporter

5)a headline

6)a subhead

7)home news

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8)foreign news

9)an obituary

10)classified

a)somebody who decides what goes in a newspaper or a magazine

b)news of events in a home country

c)somebody who sends reports from a particular part of the world

d)a serious paper that reports world events

e)a report that gives information about somebody’s death

f)a paper containing sensational stories about private lives of celebrities

g)the title of a newspaper story

h)international news

i)a secondary line of the text that gives more explanation

j)an advertisement that you put if you want to sell or buy something

Tasks

1.What are the key functions of headlines?

2.Characterize the language of headlines, their vocabulary and syntax

3.Match the following headlines and subheads. What helps you make a proper choice?

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Text 2.16

Archaeologists unearth mummy estimated to be at least 800 years old in Peru

Remains found inside an underground structure were tied up by ropes and with the hands covering the face

Reuters

Sat 27 Nov 2021 04.16

A team of experts has found a mummy estimated to be at least 800 years old on Peru’s central coast, one of the archaeologists who participated in the excavation said.

The mummified remains were of a person from the culture that developed between the coast and mountains of the South American country. The mummy, whose gender was not identified, was discovered in the Lima region, said archaeologist Pieter Van Dalen Luna on Friday.

“The main characteristic of the mummy is that the whole body was tied up by ropes and with the hands covering the face, which would be

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part of the local funeral pattern,” said Van Dalen Luna, from the state university of San Marcos.

The remains are of a person who lived in the high Andean region of the country, he said. “Radiocarbon dating will give a more precise chronology.”

The mummy was found inside an underground structure found on the outskirts of the city of Lima. In the tomb were also offerings including ceramics, vegetable remains and stone tools, he said.

Peru – home to tourist destination Machu Picchu – is home to hundreds of archaeological sites from cultures that developed before and after the Inca empire, which dominated part of South America 500 years ago, from southern Ecuador and Colombia to central Chile.

(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/27/archaeologists-unearth-mummy- estimated-to-be-at-least-800-years-old-in-peru)

Example of Text Analysis: Step by Step

I.Name the text and specify its status (fiction / non-fiction, its style, its field and its genre)

Non-fiction; style: media style, an online article, a news report (brief news)

II.Identify the subject-matter of the text

The article is concerned with the findings of archeologists in Peru: the unearthed mummy is estimated to be more than 800 years old.

III.Specify the main functions of the text

The key function of the article is informative, it informs us of the mummy unearthed by archeologists in Peru. The function of the message is implemented in the structure of the text and in the selection and organization of the material. The text is purely informative, it does not contain any elements of evaluation showing the reporter’s or the paper’s attitude to the facts reported.

IV. Identify the type of the text and its form

The text reports of the findings of archaeologists, it is narration with the elements of description. The article is presented in the form of the inverted pyramid, which means that the basic facts come first; as readers move through the story, more details and background are provided. The first paragraph, or the lead,

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