Осознанное чтение тексты и задания = Mindful Reading texts and tasks. Учебное пособие = Textbook-1

PART 3. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS: FICTION

GWENDOLEN (reproachfully): Mamma!

LADY BRACKNELL: In the carriage, Gwendolen! (GWENDOLEN goes to the door. She and JACK blow kisses to each other behind LADY BRACKNELL’s back. LADY BRACKNELL looks vaguely about as if she could not understand what the noise was. Finally turns round.) Gwendolen, the carriage!

GWENDOLEN: Yes, mamma. (Goes out, looking back at JACK.) LADY BRACKNELL (sitting down): You can take a seat, Mr. Worthing.

(Looks in her pocket for note-book and pencil.)

JACK: Thank you, Lady Bracknell, I prefer standing.

LADY BRACKNELL (pencil and note-book in hand): I feel bound to tell you that you are not down on my list of eligible young men, although I have the same list as the dear Duchess of Bolton has. We work together, in fact. However, I am quite ready to enter your name, should your answers be what a really affectionate mother requires. Do you smoke?

JACK: Well, yes, I must admit I smoke.

LADY BRACKNELL: I am glad to hear it. A man should always have an occupation of some kind. There are far too many idle men in London as it is. How old are you?

JACK: Twenty-nine.

LADY BRACKNELL: A very good age to be married at. I have always been of opinion that a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing. Which do you know?

JACK (after some hesitation): I know nothing, Lady Bracknell. LADY BRACKNELL: I am pleased to hear it. I do not approve of

anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square. What is your income?

JACK: Between seven and eight thousand a year.

LADY BRACKNELL (makes a note in her book): In land, or in investments?

121

С. Ю. СТЕПАНОВА. ОСОЗНАННОЕ ЧТЕНИЕ: ТЕКСТЫ И ЗАДАНИЯ ● MINDFUL READING: TEXTS AND TASKS

JACK: In investments, chiefly.

LADY BRACKNELL: That is satisfactory. What between the duties expected of one during one’s lifetime, and the duties exacted from one after one’s death, land has ceased to be either a profit or a pleasure. It gives one position, and prevents one from keeping it up. That’s all that can be said about land.

JACK: I have a country house with some land, of course, attached to it, about fifteen hundred acres, I believe; but I don’t depend on that for my real income. In fact, as far as I can make out, the poachers are the only people who make anything out of it.

LADY BRACKNELL: A country house! How many bedrooms? Well, that point can be cleared up afterwards. You have a town house, I hope? A girl with a simple, unspoiled nature, like Gwendolen, could hardly be expected to reside in the country.

JACK: Well, I own a house in Belgrave square, but it is let by the year to Lady Bloxham. Of course, I can get it back whenever I like, at six months’ notice.

LADY BRACKNELL: Lady Bloxham? I don’t know her.

JACK: Oh, she goes about very little. She is a lady considerably advanced in years.

LADY BRACKNELL: Ah, nowadays that is no guarantee of respectability of character. What number in Belgrave Square?

JACK: 149.

LADY BRACKNELL (shaking her head): The unfashionable side. I thought there was something. However, that could be easily altered.

JACK: Do you mean the fashion, or the side?

LADY BRACKNELL (sternly): Both, if necessary, I presume.

(taken from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde)

Beyond the text

Grosvenor Square is a well-known garden square in the heart of London. Oscar Wilde lived there in 1883-1884, and references to Grosvenor Square appear in some of his works.

Belgrave Square is one of the grandest and largest garden squares in London, occupied by the British aristocracy.

122

PART 3. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS: FICTION

Tasks

1.Identify the status of the text, the functional style and genre

2.What is the subject matter of the fragment?

3.Prove that the text is a specimen of drama

4.What makes the text ironic?

5.Watch this fragment performed in, for instance, the film by Oliver Parker ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ (2002), did it come up to your expectations?

Text 3.10

(The YOUTH CAREERS OFFICER is in his cubicle). OFFICER: Next.

(Enter HARRY).

Come into my cubicle. Wait. Arnold Baxter. I am the Youth Careers Officer. Now lad, come on, stand up straight, no slouching, what can I do for you?

HARRY: I want a job.

OFFICER: Oh no you don’t! You want a job? Just like that? See all these cards? See them? That’s youths wanting jobs. See this handful of cards here, that’s jobs.

HARRY: Bad as that, is it? I’ll go then.

OFFICER: Oh no you don’t! Do me out of a job, would you! Sit down. Card. Had a job before, have you?

HARRY: Yes. OFFICER: What was it? HARRY: Paper round.

OFFICER: Good. Good. Paper round is good for a youth. Did you get it through us?

HARRY: No. Through the papers. Situations Vacant columns. OFFICER: Oh, I see. I see. Situations Vacant. You got it through

them? Newspaper columns with the second-hand bikes and the Pets for Miscellaneous Sale. Why didn’t you buy a piano while you were doing it?

HARRY: Didn’t want a piano.

OFFICER: The government goes to all the fuss to build this lovely building, houses us, staffs it with qualified civil servants, we sit here with only two tea breaks a day waiting to serve the public, wanting to serve the public, willing to serve the public and yet you go and get a

123

С. Ю. СТЕПАНОВА. ОСОЗНАННОЕ ЧТЕНИЕ: ТЕКСТЫ И ЗАДАНИЯ ● MINDFUL READING: TEXTS AND TASKS

job through the newspaper columns. Like a lost budgie. But now you come whining to us.

HARRY: You must sit here waiting for a comedian’s job to turn up. OFFICER: Now look, lad. I’m here to help. To serve the public. I’m here to find youths careers. That’s why I’m called Youth Careers Officer. I took a course in it. University Sandwich. I was trained in social psychology. I was trained in adolescent problems. So now, button your lip, this is my

cubicle. Now, you want a job. What certificates you got? HARRY: Certificates?

OFFICER: Mental certificates, lad. Exams. G. C. E. C. S. E. D. D. Certificates. Qualifications.

HARRY: I’ve got me Bronze Medallion for Life Saving and me Tenderfoot in the Cubs.

OFFICER: Is that all? HARRY: Yes.

OFFICER: So, all we need is a job in a forest, by a lake, saving lives.

(taken from Zigger Zagger by Peter Terson)

Beyond the text: Cultural aspect

‘Zigger Zagger’ is a play described as a ‘football opera’, it deals with football hooliganism and tribalism.

A paper round is a job of delivering newspapers to houses along a particular route.

G. C. E. stands for General Certificate of Education, C. S. E. stands for Certificate of Secondary Education, D. D. (Doctor of Divinity) is the holder of an advanced degree in divinity.

Tenderfoot is the rank of a beginner in the Cubs, which is a section of the Boy Scouts for younger members.

Tasks

1.Identify the status of the text

2.What is the subject matter of the given dialogue?

3.What linguistic means does the playwright use to make it sound natural?

4.What is the attitude of the Officer to Harry? What makes you think so?

5.Can you identify with any of the characters?

124

PART 4: Cultural Diversity

Text 4.1

I had shipped ahead a box of books to myself, right before I left New York to move to Italy. The box was guaranteed to arrive at my Roman apartment within four to six days, but I think the Italian post office must have misread that instruction as “forty-six days,” for two months have passed now, and I have seen no sign of my box. My Italian friends tell me to put the box out of my mind completely. They say that the box may arrive or it may not arrive, but such things are out of our hands.

“Did someone maybe steal it?” I ask Luca Spaghetti. “Did the post office lose it?”

He covers his eyes. “Don’t ask these questions,” he says. “You’ll only make yourself upset.”

The mystery of my missing box prompts a long discussion one night between me, my American friend Maria and her husband, Giulio. Maria thinks that in a civilized society one should be able to rely on such things as the post office delivering one’s mail in a prompt manner, but Giulio begs to differ. He submits that the post office belongs not to a man, but to the fates, and that delivery of mail is not something anybody can guarantee. Maria, annoyed, says this is only further evidence of the Protestant-Catholic divide. This divide is best proven, she says, by the fact that Italians – including her own husband – can never make plans for the future, not even a week in advance. If you ask a Protestant from the American Midwest to commit to a dinner date next week, that Protestant, believing that she is the captain of her own destiny, will say, “Thursday night works fine for me.” But if you ask a Catholic from Calabria to make the same commitment, he will only shrug, turn his eyes to God, and ask, “How can any of us know whether we will be free for dinner next Thursday night, given that everything is in God’s hands and none of us know our fate?”

(taken from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert)

125

С. Ю. СТЕПАНОВА. ОСОЗНАННОЕ ЧТЕНИЕ: ТЕКСТЫ И ЗАДАНИЯ ● MINDFUL READING: TEXTS AND TASKS

Tasks

1.What cultural information did you receive from the text? Is it expressed explicitly or implicitly?

2.Think about the source of information in terms of its credibility. Can these cultural facts be verified with the help of other sources? Do you find any of these cultural facts new / surprising / unpredictable?

3.How does the given fragment characterize the cultural code of Americans and their mentality? How are their ways of life opposed to values and beliefs of Italian people?

4.What cultural dimension(s) might this fragment illustrate?

Dimensions of Culture

1.Power Distance

2.Individualism vs Collectivism

3.Masculinity vs Femininity

4.Uncertainty Avoidance

5.Long-Term Orientation vs Short-Term Orientation

6.Indulgence vs Restraint

(according to Geert Hofstede)

1.Universalism vs. Particularism

2.Individualism vs. Collectivism

3.Neutral vs. Emotional

4.Specific vs. Diffuse

5.Achievement vs. Ascription

6.Sequential vs. Synchronic

7.Internal Control vs. External Control

(according to Fons Trompenaars)

Text 4.2

Generally speaking, Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure. Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not

126

PART 4: CULTURAL DIVERSITY

necessarily a pleasure-seeking one. Americans spend billions to keep themselves amused with everything from porn to theme parks to wars, but that’s not exactly the same thing as quiet enjoyment. Americans work harder and longer and more stressful hours than anyone in the world today. But as Luca Spaghetti pointed out, we seem to like it. Alarming statistics back this observation up, showing that many Americans feel more happy or fulfilled in their offices than they do in their own homes. Of course, we all inevitably work too hard, then we get burned out and have to spend the whole weekend in our pajamas, eating cereal straight out of the box and staring at the TV in a mild coma (which is the opposite of working, yes, but not exactly the same as pleasure). Americans don’t really know how to do nothing. This is the cause of that great sad American stereotype – the overstressed executive who goes on vacation, but who cannot relax.

I once asked Luca Spaghetti if Italians on vacation have that same problem. He laughed so hard he almost drove his motorbike into a fountain.

“Oh, no!” he said. “We are the masters of bel far niente.”

This is a sweet expression. Bel far niente means “the beauty of doing nothing.” Now listen – Italians have traditionally always been hard workers, especially those long-suffering laborers known as braccianti (so called because they had nothing but the brute strength of their arm – braccie – to help them survive in this world). But even against that backdrop of hard work, bel far niente has always been a cherished Italian ideal. The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life’s achievement. You don’t necessarily need to be rich in order to experience this, either. There’s another wonderful Italian expression: l’arte d’arrangiarsi – the art of making something out of nothing. The art of turning a few simple ingredients into a feast, or a few gathered friends into a festival. Anyone with a talent for happiness can do this, not only the rich.

(taken from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert)

127

С. Ю. СТЕПАНОВА. ОСОЗНАННОЕ ЧТЕНИЕ: ТЕКСТЫ И ЗАДАНИЯ ● MINDFUL READING: TEXTS AND TASKS

Tasks

1.What is the subject matter of the fragment?

2.How does the author contrast the American way of life with the Italian way of life?

3.What in your opinion is the difference between entertainmentseeking and pleasure-seeking?

4.What cultural values of Americans and Italians are brought into focus in the text?

5.Do these cultural facts conform to your stereotypes of American and Italian people?

6.Think about the words and word combinations given in italics. Why are they italicized? What cultural information do they provide? How can you define them?

Culture loaded vocabulary / Culture specific lexis

Words with distinct national cultural characteristics, which reflect the history, culture, folk traditions and ways of life, mentality and values of the nation. Here belong non-equivalent vocabulary, background vocabulary, phraseology, proverbs, anthroponyms and toponyms

Text 4.3

Beyond the text: Matching

1)terroir (Fr)

2)to bemoan

3)to sear into

4)brashness

5)banter

6)to whine

7)wry

a)behavior that shows a lot of confidence and not much respect

b)to fix permanently in someone’s mind or memory

c)showing that you find a bad situation amusing

128

PART 4: CULTURAL DIVERSITY

d)a teasing or joking talk that is amusing and friendly

e)the particular environment, is usually used with reference to soil and climate

f)to complain or express sadness about something

g)to complain continually, usually making an unpleasant sound

Fifty states. Fifty cultures, societies, accents, cuisines, landscapes and more. I shall never be able to think of America in quite the same way again. I cannot claim to have done more than scratch the surface of this enormous land, but the scope of my adventures and the variety of people I had met have convinced me that it is almost as meaningless to call someone American without specifying their state as it is to call them European without specifying their country. The great metropolitan areas stand on their own as unique entities, but journeying through the rest of the United States I found that statehood mattered and that locality and terroir, as the French would say, seared its brand into everything and everyone.

I loved America before this trip and I love it now more than ever. The obvious characteristics that we celebrate and bemoan – the brashness, the vulgarity, the worship of money, the gun obsession, the distressing religiosity, the ignorance of the rest of the world, the deafness to linguistic nuance, the lack of banter, the whining self-regard, the blame culture, the junk food and the strip malls – yes, these are all to be found, but alongside we encounter the hope, the self-belief, the optimism, the warmth, consideration, kindness, sharpness of wits, will power, pride, wry self-awareness, independence, openness, generosity and charm. There is nothing you and I can observe about America that most Americans haven’t observed for themselves. I met very few fools on my travels, save perhaps the British I encountered who thought themselves naturally superior: I still shiver with embarrassment at the memory of their imbecile arrogance. America is not perfect, and I do not love Britain any less for loving America more. As all travelers know, the experience of a foreign country teaches about your own.

(taken from Stephen Fry in America by Stephen Fry)

129

С. Ю. СТЕПАНОВА. ОСОЗНАННОЕ ЧТЕНИЕ: ТЕКСТЫ И ЗАДАНИЯ ● MINDFUL READING: TEXTS AND TASKS

Tasks

1.Formulate the main idea of the text in 2-3 sentences

2.Think about the source of information. Is the author reliable and trustworthy? If necessary, make a brief study of the BBC television series Stephen Fry in America and the accompanying book

3.What are positive and negative features of the American national character from Stephen Fry’s point of view?

4.Do these characteristics conform to universal stereotypes of the American character? Are there any features which come to you as a surprise?

5.What facts and phenomena typical of American culture are mentioned in the text? Would you like to add anything else to the list?

6.Do you share the viewpoint that “The experience of a foreign country teaches about your own”? Why (not)?

National Character

Shared beliefs and perceptions of personality characteristics common to members of a particular nation

National stereotypes

A fixed, often overgeneralized belief about typical characteristics of members of a particular nation

Text 4.4

Beyond the text: Matching

1.to exercise a grip on something

2.contender

3.potent

4.to up sticks

5.itchy feet

130