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10. The plumbing in their house is so old — it’s positively
medieval!
11. Valerie took it for granted that Ted would be her date at the
Christmas party, so she was amazed when she saw him with
another girl.
12. The archeologists date the building to about 250 BC.
13. Why are you always so vague? Can you make yourself clear?
14. Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square commemorates Admiral
Nelson and his victory in an important sea battle against the
French and Spanish in 1805.
15. She doesn’t have any advantages over other candidates for the
post.
16. The custom dates from the time when men wore swords.
17. I had a doze in the bus.
18. His abilities were not appreciated in his job.
II. Paraphrase the following sentences, using the active
vocabulary:
1. The lady’s figure wasn’t clearly seen in the fog.
2. The Middle Ages are known as “dark” ages.
3. I need to have a short rest after lunch. It helps me recharge my
batteries and get down to work again.
4. Tomorrow we are going to Mamayev Hill to show our respect
toward the soldiers who died in the war for our sake.
5. I found out that those paintings referred to the Middle Ages.
6. Their plans are not clearly established yet.
7. James is unable to express himself clearly — I find it difficult
to understand what exactly he wants to say.
8. William fails to appreciate other people’s help.
9. The life in the suburb has its good and bad sides.
10. I am very thankful for your assistance.
III. Insert the right word from the active vocabulary:
1. When I entered the room I saw my brother … in his armchair.
2. A large crowd of people gathered in the park to … the victory
in World War II.
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3. We … your willingness to help.
4. An … figure loomed out in the shadow.
5. He doesn’t have a single … over his rival.
6. The ceremony in … of Martin Luther King began at 10 a.m.
7. He used to … his grades… .
8. The tradition … the times when there was no democracy at all.
9. We were so extremely tired that we couldn’t help … during the
lecture.
IV. Below are words from the active, each followed by a group
of synonyms and antonyms. Decide which is a synonym and which
is an antonym referring to the context the word is used in:
vague: dark, visible, murky, gloomy, cloudy, indistinct, confused,
discernible, apparent, perceptible, shadowy, indefinite, ill-defined
advantage: superiority, shortage, imperfection, benefit
V. Explain the difference between the following synonyms; find
Russian equivalents to express the nuances of meanings:
sleep, doze, nap, snooze, siesta, catnap, power nap
VI. Translate into English, using the active vocabulary:
1. Вдалеке на холме путники увидели смутные очертания
замка.
2. Мемориал на Мамаевом кургане увековечивает память
героев, павших во время Сталинградской битвы.
3. Мэгги всегда так невнятно выражает свои мысли, что я с
трудом ее понимаю.
4. Алексу 30 лет, а он все еще принимает финансовую
помощь родителей как дол
5. Ну и какие преимущества тебе дает высокий рост?
6. Вчера, прогуливаясь по торговому центру, я достаточно
дешево купил джемпер.
7. У меня нет ни малейшего представления о том, кто мог это
сделать.
жное.
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8. Я не сомневалась, что ты пойдешь с нами в кино, поэтому
взяла тебе билет.
9. Исследователи относят это здание к началу XI в. до нашей
эры.
10. Ты не отдаешь себе отчета в том, что это будет трудная
задача.
11. Я очень смутно помню свое детство.
12. Том принимал любовь Сандры как что-то само собой
меющееся.
разу
13. Я не очень люблю носить сарафаны с блузками.
14. Студент очень мало спал ночью, поэтому весь следующий
день он клевал носом.
15. Глубокие знания средневековой истории помогли студенту
успешно сдать экзамен.
16. Я не возражал бы вздремнуть в кресле перед телевизором.
17. Пытаясь выяснить происхож
словарей, я так утомилась, что задремала.
18. Ты совсем не ценишь своих друзей — а ведь ты можешь
их потерять.
19. Президент почтил память ветеранов войны в своей речи.
20. Жизнь в центре города имеет много достоинств и
недостатков.
21. Этот обычай существует со времен Средневековья.
22. Я немного вздремнула до того, как к нам пришли гости.
23. Его обещани
24. Я прекрасно понимаю, что тебе непросто было принять
решение уехать из родительского дома.
25. Недостаток обуви на высоких каблуках в том, что в ней
неудобно водить машину.
26. Этот замок относится к XVI в. наш
27. Я ценю твою искренность и готовность помочь.
28. Бабушка любит вздремнуть, сидя у огня.
29. У этого спортсмена много преимуществ перед соперниками.
CULTURE QUEST
я были весьма туманны.
дение этого слова с помощью
ей эры.
1. Find out more information about the Christmas traditions in
Britain and the U.S.
103
2. Find out the meaning of the following words and expressions
and explain how they are connected with Christmas celebrations:
mistletoe
Christmas tree
carol
yule log
holly
Santa Claus
eggnog
Christmastide
3. Make a list of American holidays.
4. Search for information about the way Americans celebrate
Easter and Independence Day.
5. Make individual PowerPoint presentations about the
celebration of American holidays.
6. Make a calendar with American holidays and their
description.
ROUND-UP DISCUSSION
1. What are the main holidays in the U.S.? Russia?
2. In what way are Russian celebrations of Christmas and the
New Year similar to American celebrations? In what way are
they different?
3. Speak about the origins of the major Russian holidays.
4. What international holidays do you know?
5. In what way do holidays reflect a country’s history and
culture?
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Unit 6
FOOD
PREREADING
Answer the questions:
1. What food is considered to be typically American? Typically
Russian?
2. What American food has been adopted by Russians?
3. What Russian food is known all over the world?
4. In your opinion, which society — Russian or American — is
more health conscious?
TEXT 1
JUNK FOOD HEAVEN
I decided to clean out the fridge the other day. We don’t usually
clean out our fridge — we just box it up every four or five years and
send it off to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta with a note to
help themselves to anything that looks scientifically promising — but
we hadn’t seen one of the cats for a few days and I had a vague
recollection of having glimpsed something furry on the bottom shelf
towards the back. (Turned out to be a large piece of Gorgonzola.)
So there I was, down on my knees unwrapping pieces of foil and
peering cautiously into Tupperware containers, when I came across an
interesting product called a breakfast pizza and I examined it with a
kind of rueful fondness, as you
yourself dressed in clothes that you cannot believe you ever thought
were stylish. The breakfast pizza, you see, represented the last
surviving relic of a bout of very serious retail foolishness on my part.
Some weeks ago I announced to my wife that I was going to the
supermarket with her next time she went because the stuff she kept
bringing home was — how can I put this? — not fully in the spirit of
American eating. Here we were living in a paradise of junk food —
the country that gave the world cheese in a spray can — and she
kept bringing home healthy stuff like fresh broccoli and packets of
Ryvita.
might regard an old photograph of
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It was because she was English, of course. She didn’t really
understand the rich, unrivalled possibilities for greasiness and goo
that the Аmeriсаn diet offers. I longed for artificial bacon bits,
melted cheese in a shade of yellow unknown to nature, and creamy
chocolate fillings, sometimes all in the same product. I wanted food
that squirts when you bite into it or plops onto your shirt front in
such gross quantities that you have to rise carefully from the table
and limbo over to the sink to clean yourself up. So I accompanied
her to the supermarket and while she was off squeezing melons and
pricing shiitake mushrooms I made for the junk food section
which was essentially all the rest of the store. Well, it was heaven.
The breakfast cereals alone could have occupied me for most of
the afternoon. There must have been 200 types, and I am not
exaggerating. Every possible substance that could be dried, puffed
and coated with sugar was there. The most immediately
was a cereal called Cookie Crisp, which tried to pretend it was a
nutritious breakfast but was really just chocolate chip cookies that
you put in a bowl and ate with milk. Brilliant.
Also of note were cereals called Peanut Butter Crunch, Cinnamon
Mini Buns, Count Chocula (‘with Monster Marshmallows’), and a
particularly hardcore offering called Cookie Blast Oat Meal, which
contained
and two of the oatmeal — how often I’ve said that you shouldn’t
start a day without a big steaming bowl of cookies — and sprinted
with them back to the trolley,
‘What’s that?’ my wife asked in the special tone of voice with
which she often addresses me in retail establishments.
I didn’t have time to explain. ‘Breakfast for the next six months,’
I panted as I dashed past, ‘and don’t even
it back and getting muesli.’
I had no idea how the market for junk food had proliferated.
Everywhere I turned I was confronted with foods guaranteed to make
you waddle, most of which were entirely new to me — jelly cream pies,
moon pies, pecan spinwheels, peach mellos, root beer buttons, chocolate
fudge devil dogs and a whipped marshmallow sandwich spread called
Fluff, which came in a tub large enough to bath a baby in.
four
kinds of cookies. I grabbed one of each of the cereals
think
about putting any of
—
arresting
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You really cannot believe the bounteous variety of non-nutritious
foods available to the American supermarket shopper these days or
the quantities in which they are consumed. I recently read that the
average American eats 17.8
Aisle seven (‘Food for the Seriously Obese’) was especially
productive. It had a whole section devoted exclusively to a product
called Toaster Pastries, which included, among much else, eight
different types of toaster strudel. And what exactly is toaster
strudel? Who cares? It was coated in sugar and looked drippy. I
grabbed an armload.
I admit I got a little carried away — but there was so much and I
had been away so long.
It was the breakfast pizza that finally made my wife snap. She
looked at the box and said, ‘No.’
‘I beg your pardon, my sweet?’
‘You are not bringing home something called breakfast pizza. I
will let you have’ — she reached into the trolley for some specimen
samples — ‘root beer buttons and toaster strudel and ...’ She lifted
out a packet she hadn’t noticed before. ‘What's this?’
I looked over her shoulder. ‘Microwave pancakes,’ I said.
‘Microwave pancakes,’ she repeated, but with less enthusiasm.
‘Isn’t science wonderful?’
‘You’re going to eat it all,’ she said. ‘Every bit of everything that
you don’t put back on the shelves now. You do understand that?’
‘Of course,’ I said in my sincerest voice.
And do you know she actually made me eat it. I spent weeks
working my way through a symphony of American junk food, and
it was all awful. Every bit of it. I don’t know whether American
junk food has got worse or whether my taste buds have matured,
but even the treats I’d grown up with now seemed discouragingly
pallid or disgustingly sickly.
The most awful of all was the breakfast pizza. I
four times, baked it in the oven, zapped it with microwaves, and once
in desperation served it with a side of marshmallow Fluff, but it never
rose beyond a kind of limp, chewy listlessness. Eventually I gave up
altogether and hid the box in the Tupperware graveyard on the
bottom shelf of the fridge.
pounds
of pretzels every year.
tried it three or
107
Which is why, when I came across it again the other day, I
regarded it with mixed feelings. I started to chuck it out, then
hesitated and opened the lid. It didn’t smell bad
pumped so full of chemicals that there wasn’t any room for bacteria
and I thought about keeping it a while longer as a reminder of my
folly, but in the end I discarded it. And then, feeling peckish, I went
off to the larder to see if I couldn’t find a nice plain piece of Ryvita
and maybe a stick of celery.
NOTE
Pay attention to the difference in the following British and
American terms:
can
AmE
AmE can opener cf. BrE tin opener — консервный нож
AmE, BrE sink — мойка, кухонная раковина
AmE тж. sink/
умывальник, умывальная раковина
AmE
колесах
AmE trolley
tram)
cf. BrE tin — консервная банка
cf.
washbasin
cart
cf.
BrE
trolley (
(
pl.
-leys)/ trolley car/ streetcar — трамвай (=
BrE
trolley — троллейбус
cf. BrE washbowl/bathroom sink —
pl.
-leys)
— 1. тележка 2. столик на
—
I expect it was
—
BrE
CULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS
Look up the following entries in the Dictionary of U. S. Life and
Culture (Жизнь и культура США: Лингвострановедческий
словарь) or other dictionaries and encyclopedias:
Atlanta
broccoli
celery
cereal
chocolate chip cookie
fudge
junk food
marshmallow
muesli
108
oat meal
pastry
peanut butter
pecan
pound
pretzel
root beer
Tupperware
COMPREHENSION CHECK
1. How do you understand the first paragraph of the text?
2. What made the author unwrap pieces of foil and look into
Tupperware containers?
3. What did he come across while doing so?
4. What comparison did he use for the breakfast pizza?
5. How does the author explain his decision to accompany his
wife to the supermarket?
6. How do you understand the expressions “a paradise of junk
food” and “junk food heaven”?
7. What kind of food was the author’s wife fond of? How does he
account for it?
8. What kind of food did the author want for himself?
9. Name the junk food products which were entirely new for the
author.
10. How much in the Russian measurement system is
pounds
?
17.8
11. What products were offered in the aisle for the ‘Seriously
Obese’?
12. What was the author’s wife worried about?
13. On what condition did she agree to let him have the food he
wanted?
14. Did he really eat it all? Why?
ACTIVE VOCABULARY
fridge n also refrigerator — a cabinet or room in which food and
drinks can be stored at low temperature.
109
coated with sugar
coat
n —
paint/dust.
a layer of anything that covers a surface:
a coat of
to coat v —
with chocolate.
to proliferate v — to increase in number or spread rapidly.
proliferation n
of nuclear weapons.
to consume v — 1. to expand by use; use up:
consume a lot of time.
as by burning:
4. to spend (money, time, etc.) wastefully. 5. to absorb; engross:
consumed with curiosity.
time-consuming
consumer goods
used in the home.
consumer society — a society in which the production of
consumer goods and the satisfaction of human wants are seen to be
very important.
aisle n — 1. a passage between or along sections of seats or
shelves, as in a theater, plane, department store, etc. 2. a
passage, usu. one of two, leading through the length of a church.
Note: Pay attention to the pronunciation of the word: [aIl].
to cover or provide with a coat:
— a rapid increase or spreading: the proliferation
2. to eat or drink up; devour 3. to destroy
The fire soon consumed the wooden buildings.
adj: a time-consuming process.
— goods such as food, clothing and equipment
The cake was coated
The arguments
to go/walk up the aisle — to get married.
obese
adj — very fat; unhealthily fat.
obesity
to treat v
friendly act: to treat someone to a piece of cake. I am going to treat
myself to a holiday in Greece next year.
n
— to buy or give (someone) something special, as a
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