Reading and Comprehension. Учебно-методическое пособие по практике английского языка

and it may spoil during storage. The blended tobacco is treated with just the right amount of steam and water to make it supple, and then cut into the form in which it appears in the cigarette. The cut tobacco is then given a quality check. Cigarette making, once done entirely by hand, is today almost fully automated with the cut tobacco, cigarette paper and filters continuously fed into the cigarette-making machines. Packing machines put the cigarettes into the familiar brand packs, wrap the packs in protective film and group them into cartons and cases. The completed cases, time-dated to ensure the freshest product possible, are then ready for distribution.

Glossary

addictive (adj): unable to stop doing something that can be dangerous. arsenic (n): a very strong poison that can kill people.

automated (adj): from the verb automate – to make a process in a factory or office operate by machines or computers, in order to reduce the amount of work done by humans and the time taken to do the work.

brand (n): a type of product made by a particular company.

crumble (v): to break, or cause something to break, into small pieces.

spoil (v): when something spoils or is spoilt, it is no longer good enough to use. cure (v): to treat food, tobacco, etc. with smoke or salt, etc. in order to stop it decay-

ing, to preserve food.

cyanide (n): a highly poisonous substance. deadly (adj): very dangerous.

fertiliser (n): a natural or chemical substance used to make plants grow. film (n): a thin layer of plastic to cover and protect an object. formaldehyde (n): a strong smelling gas used for preservation. fragrance (n): a smell.

stem (n): the stick-like central part of a plant which grows above the ground and from which leaves and flowers grow, or a smaller thin part which grows from the central part and which supports the leaves and flowers.

furnace (n): a piece of equipment for heating a building. income (n): the money you receive from doing work.

puff (n): an amount of smoke inhaled each time a smoker puts a cigarette to his / her mouth.

seedling (n): a young plant grown from a seed.

supple (adj): bending or able to be bent easily; not stiff.

ventilated (adj): from the verb to ventilate, provide air to cause fresh air to enter and move around an enclosed space.

True or False

Read the following statements and decide if they are true or false.

1.There are about 4,000 deadly chemicals in cigarette smoke.

2.If you start smoking cigarettes, it is really difficult to stop.

3.Tobacco is a good crop for farmers.

4.Most farmers use machines to harvest their tobacco crop.

5.After the crop is harvested, it is ready to be processed.

6.All tobacco is cured, hung in a barn over a fire.

7.When the tobacco has been processed, it is rolled into cigarettes by machines.

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CALENDARS

Are you looking forward to summer? In Saint Petersburg, where this article was

written, a day can be less than less six hours long in the middle of winter and nearly 19 hours in summer. At this time of year, you can easily see in people’s faces that

they are ready for brighter, sunnier days to come round again.

Months from the moon and years from the sun

To the first people it was obvious that time went in circles. The sun rises (comes up in the morning) and sets (goes down in the evening). The moon waxes (gets fatter

or wider) and wanes (gets thinner or narrower). The seasons follow each other in order.

These things happen because we are all going round in circles…the earth spins round in 24 hours, the moon goes around the Earth, and the Earth goes round the Sun

in about 365 and a quarter days. The most natural kind of calendar comes from the sun and the moon. You can count the number of days and nights in the moon’s

cycle from New Moon (when it is all dark) to Full Moon (a bright disk), and back again: 29 and a half.

The basic problem for calendar makers is how to get the months (which come

from the moon) to stay in synch with the years. The years all have a bit more than 12 New Moons in them. Maybe you read about the Chinese New Year in Claire Powell’s article

in January. If you did, you already know that some years, the Chinese calendar has an extra month, so they have exactly 235 months in every period of 19 years. This article is about how the western world solved the same problem by adding an extra day in leap years (and having longer months the rest of the time.)

Days and weeks from the planets

You can’t find any cycles of seven days by looking at the sky. However, the ancient world knew five planets apart from the sun and moon: Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. They probably made the week seven days long to give one day for each. In English, the first days of the week clearly come from The Sun (Sunday) and The Moon (Monday). The last day comes from Saturn (Saturday). Just like the rest of our language, an English week is a mixture of Latin and words from other places… Germanic gods: Tiw (an Anglo-Saxon god of the sun and war) and Wodin (the head of AngloSaxon gods) for Tuesday and Wednesday and Scandinavian gods Thor (another god of war) and Frigg (goddess of love) for Thursday and Friday.

Months of the Year

Our names of months all come from Latin. Janus a god with two faces, the god

of doors and gates gives us January; and February comes from a Roman festival of spring cleaning. Mars, who didn’t get a day of the week in English, got the whole

month of March. Jupiter , well his wife was Juno – which makes the month of June.

Most of the later months just come from the Latin words for numbers 7, 8, 9 and

10 septem, octo, nove, decem. But why isn’t September month number seven? It was

for the Romans, because they started the year with March.

The Emperors’ calendars

July is occupied by Julius Caesar, who also occupied part of Britain. And August by Augustus Caesar who was the next Roman emperor. These two men both played

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an important role in creating the modern calendar. The Julian calendar (which Julius

introduced in 46 BC) had a leap year every four years, when one day was added onto the end of the year (as it was then) on February 29th. Julius’ calendar was much sim-

pler than the old one, and it was pretty accurate, although not as good as the Chinese

one. It was only 11 minutes and 14 seconds a year too slow. Somehow, the people in charge of the calendars in Rome didn’t understand their instructions and added

an extra day every three years. Augustus, the next emperor, corrected that mistake but left the leap years as they were, so the calendar went on being 11 minutes a year too slow for centuries. Russia only introduced the Julian calendar in 1700 and changed to the Gregorian one after the revolution.

Behind the times

Over the centuries those 11 extra minutes in the Julian calendar added up to quite a lot. Our modern "Gregorian" calendar goes more quickly because we don’t have leap

years at the end of most centuries – only 1600 and 2000. When Pope Gregory brought it in in 1582, they had to take out 10 days to catch up. The year jumped directly from 4th to 15th October. In the same year, William Shakespeare got married in Stratford- upon-Avon, but Britain went on for another 180 years with the old calendar. By 1752,

when Britain changed to the new Gregorian calendar, they needed to miss 11 days to catch up. This caused violent protests…people thought the government was making

their lives 11 days shorter, or even worse, stealing their wages for the 11 missing days. Here in Russia, the years carried on being a bit too long right into the twentieth century.

On the 25th October 1917, when the Bolsheviks pushed their way into the Winter Palace it was already 7th November across the rest of Europe…a difference of 13 days. As

a result, in 1918 Russia missed the whole first half of February: going directly from 31st January to 14th February. Maybe they were pleased to get closer to the summer.

Activity – Read the questions and select the correct answer.

1.The moon waxes… a) after a full moon;

b) when the moon is full; c) until the moon is full.

2.The year really has…

a)a bit more than 365 days;

b)a bit less than 365 days;

c)exactly 365 days.

3.12 cycles of the moon are… a) about 354 days;

b) about 365 days;

c) about 365 and a quarter days.

4.The Chinese calendar has…

a)more months than the western one;

b)the same number of months as the estern one;

c)less months than the western one.

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5.In English, the Moon is the origin of our word for...

a) Monday; b) November;

c) Nothing in the calendar.

6.In the Roman calendar, December…

a)was the last month of the year;

b)was the tenth month of the year;

c)was in the summer.

7.Julius Caesar started a calendar which was… a) less accurate than the Chinese one;

b) as good as the Chinese one;

c) more accurate than the Chinese one.

8.The Roman Leap year had…

a)an extra day at the start;

b)an extra day in the second month;

c)an extra day at the end.

9.In Russia they used the same calendar as Britain...

a) from 1 700 to 1 752; b) from 1 582 to 1 700; c) from 1 582 to 1 752.

10.In Russia in 1918 they had…

a)an especially short year;

b)a leap year;

c)an especially long day.

CONSUMER SOCIETY by Julie Bray

There is enough on earth for everybody’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.

Gandhi

If we only bought things we needed, there would be enough for everybody. What do we need? What you need depends on how old you are and your way of life. Rearrange the list of things you can buy and put the things you think we most need at the top of the list.

A coat

A pair of trainers

Levi’s jeans

Water

A CD player

A pair of jeans

A dental check-up

Paper

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A restaurant meal

A telephone

Jewellery

Gold-coloured laces in your trainers

Food

An appointment at the hair salon

Paracetamol

Shampoo

An iPod

Beer

Toothpaste

A packet of M&Ms

Cushion covers

Table mats which match the curtains

If we don’t need to buy so much, we don’t need to work so much. We can take part-time jobs or reduce our working day from 8 hours to 6 hours. Some people are

leaving very well-paid jobs to live a healthier life in the countryside or a more excit- ing life abroad. This is called ‘downshifting’. Parents can spend more time with their

children and the unemployed are given more opportunities to work. If we start to respect saving the earth more than spending money, we will become ‘conservers’.

When we are conservers, we try to choose environmentally friendly products which are durable and last a long time. We may find growing our own vegetables or making our own clothes more rewarding than buying them.

What was the best thing you bought last week?

Could you choose from lots of different types? We like having a choice of what to buy. People who buy things are called consumers. Consumers have choices. We usually choose the colour, taste, smell or size of what we buy, but there are other choices we can make. The following questions will help you to consider these choices.

Where was it made?

If you don’t like the place it was made, you might decide not to buy that particu- lar product. A lot of people don’t buy products from certain countries when they don’t like the way the country is run. Was it made in a factory or on a local farm?

If the product was unbelievably cheap, the people who made it might not have been paid much.

Who made it?

Do you know? If a friend made it, you probably like it more and you will want to keep it for a long time. If it was made by somebody who enjoyed making it, the quality and the design are probably better. Or does it look like it might have been

assembled in a large factory? There are children in Asia who make Santa Claus dolls for European children to play with. The children who make the toys don’t celebrate

Christmas because they are not Christian; they think of the dolls as work. Would it be better if the children in Europe made their own Christmas dolls?

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What is it made from?

One of the places where we want to buy expensive luxuries is at the airport’s duty-free shop. Next to the chocolate and cigarettes, there are beautifully shaped bottles and compact boxes full of perfumes and creams which promise to make you look and feel more beautiful. If you look at the ingredients you will find that the perfumes are mainly alcohol and the creams are mainly made of petroleum! Almost all products are sold in packaging. Some products have too much packaging, creating more rubbish and using up resources. Some use recycled packaging, which is better for the

environment. Next time you go shopping, think about what you really need to buy.

Don’t deprive yourself of things you like, but decide what you should buy before you go out, so that you won’t be influenced by advertisements or promotions. If it is more expensive to buy goods which don’t have much packaging and things which are more

durable, buy less. If you can choose to work less, decide which things you would like to make, do or grow yourself. Even though you have less money, your life will become richer!

After reading Exercise 1

In the table are words from the text. Below are sentences containing these words. Can you put the words into the gaps in the sentences?

1. The …………… could find work more easily if we didn't work more than

6 hours per day.

2.Being able to make your own things is more …………… than buying.

3.We should be able to …………… environmentally friendly products.

4.Consumers enjoy having a …………….

5.Some products have too much …………….

6.Try not to be …………… by advertising.

7.If you enjoy making something it is …………… good quality.

Exercise 2

Decide which is the best answer to each of the following questions / statements about the text.

1.Taking a job where you work less and are paid less is called: a) consumerism,

b) downshifting, c) conservation.

2.If you are a conserver, you:

a)throw your things away so you have less;

b)look after your things well and keep them for a long time;

c)only eat vegetables you grow yourself.

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3.When we buy something, we can usually choose: a) the size and colour;

b) where it comes from; c) where it is made.

4.We can tell that the people who made a product were not paid well when: a) the product is not made well;

b) they forget to put the label on;

c) the product is unbelievably cheap.

5.Most perfumes and creams are made from:

a)plastic;

b)alcohol and petroleum;

c)plants.

6.If we don't use something very often we should: a) put it in a safe place;

b) buy a cheaper one;

c) borrow one from somebody else or lend our own to others.

7.The working day could be:

a)reduced to 6 hours;

b)from 6–8 hours;

c)reduced to 8 hours.

BILINGUALISM by Jo Bertrand

Being the mother of two potentially bilingual children (the youngest is only three months old) and the teacher of French and English bilingual children, the subject of bilingualism is very important to me. In fact we have recently moved to China

and are now considering multilingualism. But what are the advantages of learning several languages from an early age? What are the dangers? What’s the best way to teach your child two or more languages simultaneously? I don’t suggest I have

the answers here but like most mothers and teachers I certainly have a point of view!

What is a bilingual child?

The way I see it, being bilingual means being able to communicate almost per-

fectly in two languages and also knowing something about both cultures. If I take the example of my daughter it’s about being able to understand when someone

is speaking another language and being able to switch automatically into speaking it with them. At two and a half she has already grasped the concept of ‘Daddy speaks French and Mummy speaks English’. She has even picked up that Bai Yuoine speaks Chinese! I think it’s very important for her to know that the cartoon character Noddy

is also called Oui Oui by her friends at playgroup and that Marmite and Cadburys chocolate exist as well as croissants. This is what makes it possible for her to communicate with the people around her regardless of whether they are French or English.

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Why encourage bilingualism?

In our case it is logical that with an English mother and French father our children should be able to speak both languages to communicate, not only with us, but with their grandparents and extended family. On a wider scale, learning two or more languages helps children to accept cultures other than their own. If speaking their mother tongue(s) at home and at school is encouraged they are more likely to enjoy their difference and view difference in general as a positive thing.

How do you raise a bilingual child?

There may be a dominant language and this will normally depend on the country you live in or the language your child uses most at school. However, it will also

depend on what language is spoken in the home. We lived in France and spoke

French at home but I always speak to my children in English. It’s imperative that the child has consistency. They know that their English auntie will always speak to them in English and that for her to understand them they should speak to her in English.

What are the dangers?

It can be very difficult for people around you to support what you do. Grandparents can be upset if they don’t understand what you’re saying to their grandchild and worry

that they will never be able to communicate with them. This is of course highly unlikely and you should stick to your guns.

Another problem we have encountered was when our daughter refused to listen to either of us. A psychologist advised us that as there wasn’t a common language

at home between the parents and child and so I should stop speaking English and spend the weekend speaking only in French. Thankfully I decided to ignore this piece of advice and persisted with my English!

I also know of one child who had problems at school because his friends made fun of him. His parents eventually gave up speaking English to him. Unfortunately children can be cruel and differences whatever they may be are often a source of bullying. Differences need to be promoted and valued and celebrations such as the International Mother Language Day help to do just that.

International Mother Language Day 21st February 2000 saw the first Mother Language Day celebrated internationally. However the importance of this date originated in Bangladesh where in 1952 a handful of students, now known as language martyrs, were killed in demonstrations defending Bangla, their mother language. In 1999 UNESCO decided to take this cause onto an international scale in order to encourage cultural diversity and worldwide tolerance.

The ThemesEach year the celebration is devoted to a different aspect of language. This has ranged from how children learn their literacy skills at school to how to preserve some of the 6000 languages that exist worldwide. One year was about developing the teaching of mother languages and in 2002 the celebration helped raise awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions around the world. This year the International Mother Language Day is dedicated to Braille and Sign Language, two non-verbal languages that

are an invaluable source of communication for many people around the world.

A Multilingual CommunityIt’s essential that we limit alienation throughout the world. By speaking other languages as well as your own, or having two or more

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mother languages, you can contribute to the creation of a global community. My contribution to this multilingual community is exposing my children to varied cultures and languages, maintaining their mother language, while trying to learn the language of the people around me. Although with my ten or so words of Mandarin I am far from being multilingual!

CHRISTMAS – THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY by Keith Sands

Christmas is one of those holidays which means very different things to different people.

It can be a spiritual time, a family time, a time for giving, a time for partying or a time for just over-eating... Most people (in those countries where it is the main

religious festival of the year) find something to enjoy about Christmas, whether they are Christians or not. But hasn’t Christmas in the consumer age become just a bit too

big? And a lot too commercial?

I think so. The secret of a good Christmas is to be selective. Here is my personal

list of the things Christmas (at any rate, Christmas in Britain) would be infinitely better without. Let’s get rid of…

Plastic Christmas trees

Fussy people don’t like trees that drop their needles on the carpet. Surely, in the age of vacuum cleaners, this is not a problem any more? Worst of all are those plastic trees that come with their own decorations already attached, so depriving children of the great pleasure of hanging the decorations themselves. Replace with: real fir

trees, from sustainable forests.

Fairy lights that don’t work

We have sent people to the moon. Computers have changed our lives. On the inter-

net, huge amounts of information travel all over the world at the speed of light. So it shouldn’t be too difficult to put a few coloured light bulbs in a row, so they last until

New Year without breaking down. Replace with: candles – and fireproof fir trees.

Slade’s 'Merry Christmas, Everybody'

A stomping, two-chord song from the dark days of 1970s rock. Played endlessly in British pubs and on the radio through December. It is the musical equivalent of jumping up and down with heavy boots on and trying to drink beer at the same time. I remember once, at a Christmas party, picking up my beer and taking a sip –

to find out someone had used the can as an ashtray. And this song is the theme tune of that kind of party. Replace with: The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl’s 'Fairytale

of New York': a great, soulful Christmas song.

Bing Crosby’s White Christmas

While we’re on the subject of Christmas songs, let’s not forget that this senti- mental 1950s tune is the biggest selling single of all time. It’s ideal for falling asleep

in an armchair, but finally just too nostalgic. And very annoying. Replace with: 'Silent Night', a beautiful German carol known all over the world.

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Office parties

Doesn’t a computer decorated with tinsel and an office with paper chains hanging from the ceiling look just a tiny bit depressing? And office Christmas parties

are worse. Under the influence of cheap wine in paper coffee cups, strange things happen with the photocopier. Rude messages are faxed to clients. Most people can’t relax in the office. And those that can will probably do something they’ll regret later.

Replace with: an extra afternoon off work.

British Christmas Weather

In Richard Curtis films (like the recent hit Love, Actually), it always snows

at Christmas in London. The city is covered with a beautiful white blanket, the per- fect setting for a romantic happy ending. What’s the reality of Christmas weather

in the south of England? Grey skies with a good chance of cold drizzle in the late afternoon. Replace with: Russian Christmas weather.

TV

It’s a fact that we spend more time in front of the TV at Christmas than at any other time of year. The TV schedules are filled with old films, comedy 'Christmas Specials', soap operas with Christmas-related plots, and of course hundreds of adverts. Switch it off and visit your relatives instead. Replace with: log fires, board games.

Turkey with Cranberry Sauce

In Britain, the usual Christmas dinner is turkey with cranberry sauce – although

ultra-traditionalists may prefer goose. Cranberry sauce is basically a kind of jam.

We don’t put jam on meat at other times of year, so why at Christmas? Replace with: no cranberry sauce.

Consumerism

You know what I mean. Adverts for toys on children’s TV. Department stores that put out Christmas decorations as early as September. The stress of Christmas

shopping. Everywhere the message is spend, spend, spend. Christmas is a Christian religious festival, to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It’s not just an excuse for

making money. Replace with: midnight carols at church, peace on earth, and good-

will to all men.

So that’s my advice. Avoid these things and you’ll have a good chance of having a truly Merry Christmas. Which is what I wish you now. And a happy new year!

After reading Exercise 1

Below are 11 statements about the text. For each one decide if it is True or False.

1.The writer doesn’t like Christmas.

2.He doesn’t like the commercialisation of Christmas.

3.It’s not really difficult to clean up the needles from a real tree.

4.He is impressed by the technology of fairy lights.

5.He doesn’t like any Christmas songs.

6.He mentions two kinds of party he doesn’t like.

7.He thinks the film ‘Love Actually’ is realistic.

8.Christmas should be a time for visiting your family.

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