Вступительный письменный экзамен по английскому языку. Учебные материалы, методические указания и рекомендации. Пособие для абитуриентов

1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.

Are There Reasons to Be Wary of ‘Cultural Imperialism’?

Barrow discusses whether there is any reason to be wary of ‘cultural imperialism’. He dismisses such concerns since English ‘has an unsurpassed richness of vocabulary, and hence its scope for giving precise and detailed understanding of the world.’ Teachers, therefore, ‘should have no qualms about the fact that they are directly introducing certain patterns of thought and values to students’ since ‘what is implicit in the English language may represent a better or truer way of understanding the world than is represented in certain other languages’.

Such images of English then reappear in materials directly targeted at language learners. International English, a glossy ‘dossier’ prepared by MacMillan publishers (1989) and available in libraries, language schools and British Council language centres, repeats many of the same themes. And, of course, it cannot avoid the claim that ‘There are more than 500,000 words in the Oxford English Dictionary. Compare that with the vocabulary of German (about 200,000) and French (100,000)’. International English also repeats another of the images discussed earlier ‘80% of all English vocabulary comes from other languages’, before going on to argue that the history of English apparently starts around 5,000 BC with ‘a tribe called the Indo-Europeans’: ‘They were farmers and they had their own language. They discovered the wheel around 3,000 BC’. I’m not sure whether the invention of the wheel and the development of English are supposed to be somehow interlinked, but why not?

2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.

3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.

4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.

1)Я почти ни разу не поел как следует, с тех пор как я приехал в Англию.

2)Он не придет. Я только что разговаривала с ним по телефону.

3)Филипп отнес свой чемодан в вагон и курил на перроне.

4)Сегодня такой же жаркий день, как был и вчера.

5)Эти факты не стоит упоминать, вам следовало бы достать более надежные сведения.

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Task 27b

1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.

Nouns Used as Adjectives

Grammarians resist any change to old Latinate grammatical terms: adjective goes back to the 14th century. Adjectives, as most people know, describe nouns, and we use such words perfectly well without ever thinking of them as adjectives, just as we don’t think about how to ride a bicycle. In The Good English Guide, adjectives are called descriptive words.

More and more nouns are now used as adjectives, especially in newspaper headlines. We live with the ‘world situation’ instead of the ‘situation in the world’ and we read about ‘reactor design problems’ instead of ‘problems over the design of reactors’. This is often a useful shortcut, but when there is a build-up of nouns as descriptive words, a sentence becomes awkward and more difficult to understand: ‘We have to increase city-centre hospital building planning’ is not as clear as ‘We have to plan to build more hospitals in the centre of cities’.

But if we always insist on ‘the population of the world’ rather than ‘world population’, the ‘crisis over balance of payments’ rather than the ‘balance of payments crisis’, etc. our sentences will drag. It’s a matter of what is clear, and reading a sentence aloud is often the best guide. It’s all part of fast-lane living in the 1990s, to use yet another noun as an adjective.

Occasionally the same word as adjective and noun have different meanings. For example, musical describes something that is melodious or anything related to music, but a musical is more specific — it’s short for a musical comedy or a musical film.

2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.

3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.

4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.

1)Мы узнали, что в этом районе строится большой завод.

2)Мы работаем вместе уже пятнадцать лет и привыкли понимать друг друга.

3)Телеграмму послали поздно вечером, так что она будет получена только завтра утром.

4)Он спросил, часто ли мы получаем заказы.

5)Во сколько мы прибываем в аэропорт?

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Task 28b

1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.

Standard English and British English

In 1913 the philologist, Henry Cecil Wyld, defined Standard English as ‘the “best” type of spoken English…’, with Modified Standard as ‘the various vulgar forms of this heard among the inferior ranks of the population’ (Standard English and its Varieties). In 1985 Robert Burchfield, at the time chief editor of Oxford English dictionaries, regarded Standard English as ‘the variety considered most suitable for use on the spoken channels of our broadcasting systems emanating from London’.

About many words and expressions, there is general agreement. About others, even dictionaries take different views on whether a word or a phrase is slang or Standard English, how to pronounce some words and on what is good grammar. Outside linguistics, few people use the term Standard English; in any case, it seems more valid to spell it with a small s, as in The Good English Guide, to suggest generally accepted good use of English instead of a prescriptive decree laid down by an absolute authority.

In books on linguistics, British English has been used since the late 19th century. But many people in Britain would consider the term unnecessary, as they would share Enoch Powell’s sentiment that ‘others may speak English… but it is our language not theirs’. The Times Literary Supplement has long taken a more liberal view: ‘West African writers… regard English as a language which is theirs to use and which they are entitled to mould and pound and batter into any shape they please’ (10.08.1962).

2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.

3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.

4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.

1)В парке слишком мало деревьев — он выглядит голым.

2)В следующий раз, пожалуйста, приходите вовремя на занятия.

3)Очевидно, он пойдет туда завтра вечером.

4)Они сидели за маленьким круглым столиком, покрытым голубой вышитой скатертью, пили крепкий душистый чай и негромко разговаривали о своих планах на завтра.

5)Он поинтересовался, нравятся ли нам эти картины.

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Task 29b

1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.

The Meanings of ‘Green’

Up to the mid-1980s, the political and environmental meanings of green still seemed linked to pacifism, vegetarianism and fringe groups, such as the Green Party, started in Britain in 1973, and the Greenpeace organization founded two years earlier. Since then, the major political parties, multinationals from Coca-Cola to IBM, and others have seen the light, or the political expedience, of proclaiming that green is good.

The alternative meanings of green have almost eclipsed the simple use of the word for the colour. If you say you are wearing green clothes, a not insignificant number of people would think you mean a dress or shirt made from fabric free from non-renewable resources, or that your jeans are made out of cloth washed with pumice stones, rather than contaminating the environment through the use of chlorinated bleach.

Green is used about many aspects of life, politics and society in the 1990s. The Green Consumer’s Guide offers a definition: green products should ‘not cause significant damage to the environment or consume disproportionate amounts of energy, when made, used or thrown away’. The traditional British milk bottle, still left on doorsteps, is cited as the perfect example: ‘It looks good. It does the job… it can be re-used and recycled’. Milk bottles are green!

The word green has been recycled, just as everything else must be recycled to conserve the world’s resources. All this is good news for everyone living on this planet, even if it has played havoc with the meaning of the word green.

2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.

3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.

4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.

1)Если бы книга не была такой дорогой, я бы не отказался от мысли купить ее.

2)Такие волнующие новости наверняка представляют интерес для всех.

3)Они сказали, что были бы рады, если бы я съездил с ними во Владимир.

4)Завтра я сдаю экзамен по английскому языку.

5)Во время каникул мы подолгу загорали и купались, а в плохую погоду смотрели фильмы по телевизору и читали книги.

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Task 30b

1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.

Doubling the Final Letter before -ed and -ing

Some people have to think twice whether, for example, it is developed, developing or ‘developped’, ‘developping’, particularly as American practice often differs from British English (traveled, traveling instead of travelled, travelling). The following simple rules are worth reading through to save unnecessary checking with a dictionary. Note: 3 is the most useful rule, since it covers many words that people often hesitate over.

1 Most words of one syllable, ending with a single consonant, double the consonant before -ed or -ing. It is usually obvious from the pronunciation: fit — fitted, fitting; pit-pitted, pitting…

2 With words of more than one syllable, ending with one consonant, listen to the stress pattern. If the final syllable is stressed, the consonant is usually doubled: allot (‘aLOT’) — allotted, allotting; omit (‘oMIT’) — omitted, omitting… But with words ending in more than one consonant, the second one is not usually doubled: repent (‘rePENT’) — repented, repenting; suggest (‘sugGEST’) — suggested, suggesting…

3 With words of more than one syllable, not stressed on the last syllable, the final consonant is not usually doubled — unless it is l: ballot (‘BALlot’) — balloted, balloting; bracket (‘BRACket’) — bracketed, bracketing; profit (‘PROfit’) — profited, profiting…

4 Most words ending in l double the l, wherever the stress falls: bedevil — bedevilled, bedevilling; cancel — cancelled, cancelling… Look out for parallel, which is the most common exception — paralleled, unparalleled.

2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.

3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.

4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.

1)Анна сказала, что удивлена тем, что он вам этого не объяснил.

2)Я живу на первом этаже нового дома на улице, названной в честь Моцарта.

3)Пока еще с нашей новой стиральной машиной не было никаких проблем.

4)Мне кажется, что зима будет холодной.

5)Завтра к этому времени мы уже будем два часа лежать на пляже.

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4.4.Блок заданий № 4

Task 1с

1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.

The New Revised Standard Version

of the Bible: Its Making and Character

If according to the Proverbs of Solomon, ‘The way of the transgressor is hard’ (Prov. 13:15), the way of the translator is scarcely less hard. Since not all the nuances in a text can be conveyed into another language, the translator must choose which ones are to be rendered and which are not. For this reason the cynic speaks of translation as the art of making the right sacrifice, and the Italians have put the matter succinctly in the proverb ‘The translator is a traitor’ (traduttore traditore). In short, except on a purely practical level, translation is never entirely successful. There is always what Ortega y Gasset called ‘the misery and the splendour of the translation process’.

Now the work of translating the Bible presents special difficulties. Since the Scriptures are a source of both information and inspiration, Bible translators are required to be accurate as well as felicitous. They must be suitable for rapid scanning as well as for detailed study, and suitable for ceremonial reading aloud to large and small audiences. Ideally, they should be intelligible and ever inviting to readers of all ages, of all degrees of education, and of almost all degrees of intelligence.

Such an ideal is, of course, virtually impossible of realization. One can understand, therefore, why there have been so many attempts to put the Bible into English. Since 1952, when the Revised Standard Version was published, there have been twenty-six different translations of the entire Bible in English, as well as twenty-five other translations in English of the New Testament.

2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.

3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.

4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.

1)Джек посмотрел на Тома, чтобы понять, как он воспринял эти новости.

2)Не может быть, чтобы это была Лора! Ее в это время не было в городе.

3)Вы даете мне понять, что все эти долгие месяцы я напрасно тратил время?

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4)Вера сказала, что она купила бы эти туфли, если бы они хорошо смотрелись.

5)Раньше я его никогда не видела.

Task 2с

1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.

Intellectual or Intelligent

The word intelligent is in the clear: it unarguably describes a person as having a high level of mental ability, or an idea or concept as being well thought out. It is hard to imagine the word used other than in a good sense.

The word intellectual is loaded with confusing and conflicting social and political associations. It was originally as out in the open as intelligent, and meant someone with a high level of understanding, or described an approach that revealed those qualities. For Milton, an ‘intellectual being’ possessed ‘Those thoughts that wander through eternity’ (Paradise Lost). Dictionaries continue to offer these definitions of intellectual, but the reality is that intellectual is often used disdainfully, to describe someone out of touch with feelings and ordinary people.

The word has become tainted by the old class associations of intelligentsia, originally a term for the educated class involved in the revolutionary movement. An article by an American academic, Peter Brooks, in The Times Literary Supplement, suggested that we ‘are not quite sure what intellectuals are’ and are more at home with the words ‘writers, scholars, experts, etc.’

After all that, it is difficult to know where the word stands now. To be called an intellectual might be taken as a compliment to one’s intelligence. Or it could be writing us down as arrogant, unbalanced and out of focus with life. If we want to play safe, we’d better describe a book, idea, argument, etc as intelligent or profound, rather than intellectual.

2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.

3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.

4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.

1)«На что ты смотришь, Вилли?» — «Ни на что». — «Ни на что смотреть невозможно».

2)Недавно он перешел на новую работу.

3)Будь у Петра больше усердия, он бы давно получил степень бакалавра.

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4)Он не самый лучший, но и не самый худший человек из всех, кого я когда-либо встречал.

5)Я уже неделю прошу тебя починить дверь. Когда ты собираешься это сделать?

Task 3с

1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.

Latin Roots

There are two sources for most English words that derive from Latin. The Romans were imperialists and administrators, and their conquests carried their language with them, displacing the native languages of the countries they invaded. Britain did not suffer this linguistic takeover, because the islands were too remote and unattractive for the Roman overlords to want to assimilate into. So English remained a Germanic language, which absorbed only a few ecclesiastical Latin words.

In 1066, the Norman Conquest changed that. Not that it happened right away. For nearly two hundred years, the indigenous language existed alongside Norman French, the language of the conquerors. But by the 14th century, social integration was having a linguistic effect and the native language was taking on board vast shiploads of new words, mostly derived from Latin. The works of Chaucer, written in the second half of the 14th century, are far more comprehensible to the present-day reader than, for example, the great Old English epic Beowulf, preserved in a late 10th century manuscript.

The second process of Latinization of English was the rise of classical scholarship with the Renaissance, that gigantic transition in the mainstream of European thought between the 14th and 17th centuries. This latter process has never come to an end, as Latin roots continue to be called on for many new word formations, from computer (Latin ‘computare’, to reckon up) to nuclear (Latin ‘nucleus’, a nut or a kernel).

2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.

3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.

4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.

1)Математика для меня была самым трудным предметом в школе.

2)Василий сказал, что его еще никогда не принимали за англичанина.

3)К маю будет пять лет, как он водит эту машину.

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4)Тщетно агент пытался получить сведения. Они были сверхсекретными.

5)Студент не ожидал, что его лекцию прослушают с таким интересом.

Task 4с

1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.

The Literature of the Restoration

The main characteristic of the new literature may be summed up in the phrase ‘From the head, not the heart.’ The literature of the past had been passionate, concerned with the relationship between God and man, man and woman, man and man as seen from the viewpoint of feeling and imagination. But in the Restoration period, feeling and imagination were mistrusted: feeling implied strong convictions, and strong convictions had produced a Civil War and the harsh rule of the Commonwealth; imagination suggested the mad, the wild, the uncouth, the fanatical. It was best to live a calm civilised life governed by reason. Such a life is best lived in the town, and the town is the true centre of culture; the country estates are impoverished, and little of interest is going on there; the country itself is barbaric. And so the themes of the new literature are town themes — politics, the doings of polite society, the intellectual topics of men who talk in clubs and coffee-houses. We may expect no more Shakespearian nature-pieces, no poems smelling of flowers or telling of shepherds and milkmaids. The human brain has taken over and is in complete control: good manners replace passion, wit replaces eloquence; the heart is not worn on the sleeve nor, seemingly, anywhere else. The literature of the Restoration is neither moved nor moving. John Dryden is the first great name of the new, as John Milton was the last great name of the old. But the way had been paved for Dryden by a number of writers who linked the two ages.

2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.

3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.

4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.

1)Ничто не могло заставить его последовать этим советам.

2)Он пришел домой после того, как мы ушли.

3)Вы так сильно изменились, что я едва вас узнала.

4)Нет сомнения в том, что последняя сцена пьесы была самой удачной.

5)Мы хотим, чтобы комитет был созван в понедельник.

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Task 5с

1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.

Literary Theory

in the Restoration Period

Being an intellectual age, the Restoration period was most interested in theory — especially in literary theory. Dryden again comes first. He gives us, in essays, prefaces, dramatic prologues, and epilogues, his considered opinions on the literary art, and can be regarded as the first of the English literary critics. Criticism forms an important part of a nation’s literary heritage. We revere Coleridge’s criticism as much as his poetry, and the same may be said of T.S. Eliot in our own day. The great critic has a philosophy of literature: he is clear in his own mind as to the function of literature, and he knows the conditions under which this function can best be fulfilled. He praises and condemns not as most of us do, saying ‘I don’t like this, but I like that’; he has clear reasons for finding an author important or unimportant, and these reasons are related to his philosophy. He finds connections between authors who, at first sight, seem to have little to do with each other, and out of these connections he is able to build up the image of a ‘tradition’. Dryden’s philosophy is clearly stated, particularly in the Essay on Satire and the Essay of Dramatic Poesy. He proclaims himself a ‘classicist’. The purpose of literature is to give a picture of truth, to imitate nature in the manner of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The ancients are the best models, and it is safe for the beginner to imitate them. Literature must primarily satisfy the reason. Blank verse suggests disorder, so Dryden insists on rhyme, even in drama.

2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.

3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.

4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.

1)Я советую купить это платье, хотя оно дороже того темносинего, но оно тебе больше идет.

2)Я купила швейную машинку и скоро научусь шить.

3)Труппа этого театра — в основном выпускники ГИТИСа.

4)Он не мог понять, в чем состояла просьба клиента, и попросил его изложить ее в письменном виде.

5)Я мог бы вернуться на автобусе.

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