Коммуникативная организация и языковые средства восприятия иноязычного текста практикум по английскому языку для инженеров. Учебное пособие

10. I … with my friends in clubs every weekend.

c Put the verb in Present Simple or Present Continuous.

1.Excuse me, _____ (you / speak) English?

2.«Where’s Tom?» «____ (he / have) a shower.»

3.____ (I / not / watch) television very often.

4.Sandra is tired. _____ (she / want) to go home now.

5.How often ____ (you / read) a newspaper?

6.«Excuse me, but _____ (you / sit) on my place.» «Oh, I’m sorry.»

7.It’s late. _____ (I / go) home now. _____ (you / come) with me?

8.What time _____ (your mother / finish) work every day?

9.James _____ (not / usually / drive) to the university. He _____

(usually / walk).

10.Jane _____ (not / like) coffee. _____ (she / prefer) tea.

Ex. 8. a Practise making different questions. Write the questions to the answers below.

Example: I usually get up at nine o’clock at the weekend. What time do you usually get up at the weekend?

1.Watching TV is my favourite leisure activity.

2.I spend just twenty minutes to prepare my breakfast.

3.My friend prefers ready meals and takeaways.

4.My brother often participates in sports competitions.

5.He’s doing his homework now.

6.My friends like surfing the Internet.

7.I am crazy about dancing.

8.I am chatting on my mobile with my friend now.

9.I live very near the university.

10.I want to visit America.

b Work in pairs or work around the classroom. Ask the questions to another student or your teacher. Think of other questions as well.

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Ex. 9. a Put the sentences from the box into the dialogue of two students below.

Ben: Hello. ___________________

Emily: Fine. Thanks. And you?

Ben: OK. Thank you. I’m Ben. And what’s your name?

Emily: My name is Emily. Ben: Nice to meet you, Emily. Emily: Nice to meet you too. Ben: ___________________

Emily: I am from Manchester, England. And you? _______________

Ben: No, I’m from Boston, America.

Emily: Really? It’s a fantastic city. I have been there twice.

Ben: Oh, I like my native city, too. But I’ve never been to Manchester.

Are there any places of interest?

Emily: Yes, sure. There are a lot of places of interest in Manchester.

We’ve got museums and galleries.

Ben: I see. And are you a student?

Emily: Yes. I study here, at Oxford University. I’m a first-year student.

___________________ Right?

Ben: Yes, but I have been studying here for two years. Emily: Oh, great! ___________________

Ben: I study mathematics and physics. And what do you study? Emily: I study economics.

Ben: ___________________

Emily: I do sport in my free time. And you? ___________________

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Ben: I like basketball. ______________

Emily: Yes, I play for the college basketball team.

Ben: Really? It’s great! …

b Read the dialogue in pairs. Pay attention to pronunciation and intonation of different types of questions.

c Act out the conversation between two students who have just got acquainted. Change the information to make true sentences and ask more questions.

Ex. 10. a Read the words and phrases from the text given below. Pay attention to their pronunciation and meanings.

b Read the text and agree or disagree with the pieces of advice given.

How to Get Over the Fear of Starting a Conversation in English

Before we get into the thick of things, I’ll let you in on the mindset you need to have when starting up a conversation.

The fear of speaking to strangers really comes from the fear of seeming «weird» or looking foolish. You’re essentially afraid of the

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other person’s reactions, like a strange look that says «I don’t want to talk to you», or even someone laughing at you. (Of course, this very rarely happens in real life!).

To be honest, I still experience moments of fear when I start conversations in a language I’m learning. It sometimes takes me a few minutes to get into the flow. Just know that this feeling is totally normal. Try to accept it as normal, and not to worry about it too much.

Step 1: Be Friendly!

The first key to feeling relaxed and getting over your fear is to have a good time and be friendly. Smile and enjoy the experience of meeting someone new. If you can relax and enjoy getting to know someone, then that will be felt by the other person and it will put them at ease.

Talking with someone who is super serious and has a grave expression is rarely enjoyable, so why put someone else through that? Relax your face and turn that frown upside down! Talk to people as you would talk to a friend, and they may just become one.

Step 2: Take the Pressure Off

A lot of fear around starting conversations comes from putting pressure on yourself to have a certain result from the conversation. So, stop having specific expectations about what will happen! Don’t expect anything from yourself or the other person other than getting to know them a little better.

Also, don’t force a topic or be aggressive in what you’re trying to say. That type of energy is a turn-off to someone you’ve just met. Let the conversation flow naturally.

Finally, realize that you don’t need to become BFFs («Best Friends Forever») with your conversation partner. There are millions of native speakers out there, so becoming friends with this one person won’t determine your success as an English speaker. If the conversation doesn’t go well, that’s okay. The next opportunity is just around the corner.

Step 3: Remember, the World Doesn’t Revolve Around You

Don’t make the conversation only about yourself. Try to ask questions about the other person’s life. Only interject things about yourself when they are actually relevant to the topic.

What if they ask you a question about yourself? Answer it. But then ask them the same question. Often people ask questions they secretly want to be asked themselves, so turn the question around and see what your conversation partner has to say.

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The most important thing is to not be forceful or seem desperate. Bring things up naturally and casually. People should never feel pressured to talk with you, so help them feel comfortable.

Step 4: Be Honest

When asking questions or talking about something, don’t make something up just because you memorised a particular phrase.

For example, don’t say «I love cats too!» if you actually hate cats. Or avoid saying «My uncle works in a factory» when you don’t even have an uncle, let alone one that works in a factory.

Make sure you say things that are true, even if it means searching for the words you need. Otherwise you could end up in a really awkward situation.

Step 5: Avoid Closed-Loop Questions

Questions that can only be answered with «yes» or «no» are what I call closed-loop questions, because they close down conversation. Openloop questions work much better when your aim is to keep a conversation going.

Let’s look at the difference between these through a couple of examples. Instead of asking the closed question «Do you like apple juice?», ask the open question «What is your favourite type of juice?» Or, instead of asking «Do you like spaghetti?» you can ask «How often do you eat Italian food?»

Open-loop questions invite further discussion, whereas a «yes» or «no» question usually just invites an end to the conversation.

(by Benny Lewis from http://www.fluentin3months.com/conversation-starters)

c Discuss the most interesting and useful step(s) in the group or in pairs.

PART 2. DISCUSSING EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES

Ex. 1. a Match the phrases in A with the opposites in B.

Ex. 4. Complete the sentences with Me too / Me neither or But I do /

But I don’t .

1.I am from Kemerovo. – Oh, really? Me … .

2.I don’t understand this subject. – Me … .

3.My sister is a teacher. – Oh, really? My sister’s a teacher … .

4.I don’t go to bed late. – But I … .

5.My favourite colour is red. – Me … . I like it very much.

6.I always have breakfast in the morning. – No, I … .

7.I am eighteen. – Me … .

8.I live in a students’ hostel. – But I … . I rent a flat.

9.I don’t like mathematics. – But I … . It’s interesting!

10.I like studying at the university. – Me …!

Ex. 5. Use Exercise 4 and your own ideas to talk with your groupmate. Give your own reply with Me too / Me neither or But I do

/ But I don’t .

Ex. 6. Listen to two dialogues at a party. Complete the table below. Pay attention to the words and phrases from the dialogues.

(from Cutting Edge: Intermediate Student’s Book / Sarah Cunningham, Peter Moor. – London: Longman, Pearson Education Limited, 2005. – P. 12)

Ex. 7. Read the following statements checking the meanings of the phrases in bold. Which do you think are true for Russia? Discuss your ideas.

1.People work longer hours than in the past.

2.Watching TV is the most popular leisure time activity.

3.Most people read newspapers regularly.

4.Most women work full-time.

5.Women do the main share of the housework.

6.People eat more and more ready meals and takeaways.

7.Young people have a full-time job by the time they are twenty.

8.These days young people spend more time socializing than doing homework.

9.Regular Internet users are often keen on sport as well.

10.Most people take part in some sport at least once a week.

Ex. 8. Read the text. Which country does the activities from Exercise 7? Which are true all over the world?

How People Really Spend Their Time All Over the World

Although people all over the world are working longer and longer hours, we also have more leisure time than ever before.

After sleeping and working, watching TV is the most popular leisure activity in the world. The British watch more TV than any other nation in Europe, but they also read more. The majority, eighty-five percent, regularly read newspapers, and fifty-four percent regularly read books.

Although up to two thirds of modern European women work fulltime, they still do the main share of the housework, too. Husbands help in the house more than they did in the past, but in the UK, for

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example, men do an average of just six hours a week compared to their wives, who do over eighteen hours.

According to the latest research by supermarkets, the average British family spends just eleven minutes preparing the main evening meal, and prefers «ready meals» and takeaways to home-cooked food. Almost half of all families in the UK eat together only once a month or less.

More than half of young people in the UK have a full-time job by the age of nineteen, but the majority of young Spanish and Italian people do not start full-time work until they are twenty-four.

The average American fourteen-year-old spends only half an hour a day doing homework, and less than a fifth of young people participate in sports, clubs, music or other traditional hobbies. Sixtyfive percent say they spend their time chatting on their mobiles and hanging out with their friends in shopping malls.

The Swedes and Finns are the sportiest nationalities in Europe. Seventy-three percent do sport once or twice a week.

People may spend more time at work these days, but are they always working? The latest research reveals that each day the average British employee spends fifty-five minutes chatting, sixteen minutes flirting, fourteen minutes surfing the Internet and nine minutes

sending e-mails to friends.

(from Cutting Edge: Intermediate Student’s Book / Sarah Cunningham, Peter Moor. – London: Longman, Pearson Education Limited, 2005. – P. 9)

Ex. 9. What is the significance of the following numbers in the text above? Look back at the text, if necessary.

1.85%

2.54%

3.6 hours

4.18 hours

5.11 minutes

6.19

7.24

8.half an hour a day

9.73

10.55 minutes

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Ex. 10. Choose three things from the text that are the most interesting for you. Compare with your groupmate. Are you happy with the way you use your time? Discuss what you would like to do more often.

PART 3. GIVING A SELF-PRESENTATION

Ex. 1. a Look at Steve Jobs’s photos below, a famous engineer. Do you know why he is famous?

b Don’t look at Steve Jobs’s fact file yet. Write some questions about him (What is his job? / Is he married?, etc.).

c Read the fact file about Steve Jobs and find the answers to your questions.