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Файл:Соединенные Штаты Америки. Учебное пособие
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basement n — a room or rooms completely or partly below street
level.
luxury n., pl. -ies — 1. a condition of great comfort provided without
any consideration of the cost: We can’t afford to spend money on
luxuries. 2. something that is very pleasant and enjoyable, but not
necessary and not often had or done: It’s a real luxury to stay in
bed instead of getting up for school.
to astound v — 1. to overwhelm with amazement. 2. to fill with
bewilderment or wonder. Synonym: to surprise.
astounding adj: an astounding defeat in the election.
to unnerve v — 1. to deprive of courage, strength, or determination;
to cause to become nervous.
to exhilarate v — to make someone cheerful and excited; to refresh,
stimulate.
stuff n — 1. matter, material: What’s this sticky stuff on the floor?
2. object or items of an unspecified kind: I can’t carry all my stuff
alone! Have you brought your swimming stuff? 3. inner quality:
Such experiences are the very stuff of life.
ASSIGNMENTS
I. Pay attention to the following sentences from the text
containing words from the active vocabulary. Translate them into
Russian.
1. You proffer hopelessly inadequate sums when making small
purchases.
2. All those things one does as an adult — take out mortgages,
have children, accumulate pension plans, develop an interest in
household wiring — I had only ever done in England.
3. I was as dazzled as any foreigner by the famous ease and
convenience of daily life, the giddying abundance of absolutely
everything, the wondrous unfillable vastness of an American
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basement, the delight of encountering waitresses who seemed to
be enjoying themselves, the curiously astounding notion that ice
is not a luxury item.
II. Read the following phrases which contain words from the
active:
to live in abundance — жить в достатке
an abundance of people — стечение народа
to puzzle over something — ломать голову над чем-либо
to afford a luxury — позволить себе роскошь
pure/sheer luxury — явная роскошь
to wallow in luxury — как сыр в масле кататься
purchase and sale — купля и продажа
III. Paraphrase the following sentences using the active
vocabulary:
1. They planned to get married as soon as they came of age.
2. I think it’s disgraceful, all those grown-up men acting like
children.
3. Emma will inherit a fortune when she comes of age.
4. The atmosphere of fun is sure to amuse him.
5. He’s sure to have all the
6. Her hostility made me feel helpless.
7. It baffled me that they rejected our offer.
8. I failed to learn such a great number of rules.
9. This coffee is really stimulating.
10. This question perplexes me.
life pleasure he wants.
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:
odd: individual, original, conventional, peculiar, regular, eccentric,
usual
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wondrous: astonishing, amazing, overwhelming, marvelous,
fascinating, unsurprising, miraculous
to assert: to claim, to maintain, to affirm, to hesitate, to assure, to
declare
audacity: confidence, caution, impudence, insolence, calculation,
deliberation, rashness
to beat: to defeat, to conquer, to hit, to fail, to strike, to collapse, to
lose, to overcome
luxury: enjoyment, pleasure, moderation, comfort, ease, selfdenial, felicity, paradise, self-indulgence
to puzzle: to baffle, to mystify, to clarify, to perplex, to inform
V. Translate into Russian:
1. What puzzles me is why they didn’t take her advice.
2. I was astounded by the landscape.
3. Russians always offer their guests an abundance of food and
drinks.
4. We’ve been married for 2 decades.
5. Jack was unnerved because of his problems.
6. My son enjoys playing with puzzles.
7. The dress was made of silky stuff.
8. Her first encounter with the boss unnerved her.
9. I’m sure I’ll cope with this puzzle.
10. Playing hide-and-seek exhilarates me.
11. Tom astounded Anne by his gift.
12. I was exhilarated because of Sam’s postcard.
13. What kind of stuff do you like to read?
14. Most children are told to obey adults without arguing.
15. The sea air is most exhilarating,
16. How do you think you’re going to fit all that stuff into the car?
17. We were astounded to hear that Bush had won the election.
18. I was exhilarated by the ride in the sports car.
19. I’ve got so much stuff to do this weekend.
20. Where’s the camping stuff?
21. The most unnerving thing is his changeable character.
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22. I thought you were made of sterner stuff — don’t just give up!
23. Come on, Gina, get on the dance floor and do your stuff!
VI. Translate the following sentences into English paying
attention to the active vocabulary:
1. Еды было в изобилии.
2. Ты меня озадачил своим известием.
3. Этот вопрос ставит меня в тупик.
4. Отдых на берегу был настоящей роскошью!
5. Мое последнее приобретение — новый компьютер.
6. Детям не разрешается входить в музей без сопровождения
взрослых.
7. Я не перестаю ломать голову над этой задачей.
8. Невозможно сохранять хладнокровие в такой си
9. Изобилие товаров и услуг в новом супермаркете поразило
меня.
10. После того, как я окончил колледж, мои родители стали
относиться ко мне как ко взрослому.
11. «Где велосипед?» — «Не помню точно, кажется, где-то в
подвале».
12. Разговор с начальником совершенно выбил меня из колеи.
13. Не представляю себе, как ты можешь это есть.
14. Ут
о бессонной ночи.
ренний воздух был таким бодрящим, что Мэгги забыла
туации.
VII. Comment on the following sentences from the text:
1. You quickly discover that time has wrought changes that leave
you feeling mildly foolish and out of touch.
2. I could hardly have felt more foreign if I had stood there
dressed in Lederhosen.
3. It was where I came from, what I really understood, the base
against which all else was measured.
4. The many good things about America also took on a bewitching
air of novelty.
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VIII. Answer the following questions demonstrating your
knowledge of American culture:
1. When do people come of age in the U.S.? What rights do they
acquire? Compare this information to adulthood in Russia and Britain.
2. What do you know about Cincinnati?
3. What are your cultural associations with New England?
4. What is the title of the national anthem of the U.S.? Why is it
called so?
IX. Choose the correct variant:
1. Which of the New England states do not border on the ocean?
a) New Hampshire; b) Vermont; c) Rhode Island.
2. In which state is Cincinnati situated?
a) Iowa; b) Texas; c) Ohio.
3. The Forth of July is associated with:
a) Halloween; b) Thanksgiving Day; c) Independence Day.
4. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
a) 1931; b) 1776; c) 1812.
5. When do Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day?
a) on November 24; b) on the second Wednesday of October;
c) on the fourth Thursday of November.
X. Give Russian equivalents to the following phrases and
use them in situations of your own:
to be out of touch
to find yourself in your element
to make a mental note of something
ease and convenience of daily life
to feel mildly foolish
to mark somebody out as an American
an exhilarating atmosphere
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XI. Fill in the table:
WORD ANTONYM SYNONYM
abundance
to beat
exhilarating
unnerving
to astound
luxury
adult
XII. Comment on the following proverbs and sayings:
1. There is no place like home.
2. Home, sweet home.
3. East or West home is best.
ROUND-UP DISCUSSION
1. Have you ever been to another country for a long period of time?
What were your feelings?
2. Do you think home should be like a “castle” for a person?
3. Do you consider your country to be your home?
4. Do you think there can be several “homes” in a person’s life?
Justify your point of view.
5. What do you like most of all about living in your country? What
would you miss badly if you lived abroad?
6. Why is it so hard to get used to foreign customs and traditions?
7. Name the advantages and disadvantages of living abroad.
8. What makes a person feel at home in a foreign country?
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Unit 2
U.S. GEOGRAPHY
PREREADING
Answer the questions:
1. How many states does the U.S. consist of?
2. How many states were there originally?
3. Do you know any state nicknames and their origins?
4. Why do you think Americans are so fond of giving nicknames
to almost everything and everybody?
TEXT 1
THE STATES EXPLAINED
My father, who like all dads sometimes seemed to be practicing for
a world’s most boring man competition, used to have the habit, when I
was a boy, of identifying and reporting the state of origin of all the
other cars on any highway we happened to be traveling along.
In America, as I expect you know, each state issues its own
numberplates, so you can tell at a glance where another car is from,
which enabled my father to make trenchant observations like, ‘Hey,
another car from Wyoming. That’s three this morning.’ Or:
‘Mississippi. Wonder what he’s doing way up here?’ Then he would
look around hopefully to see if anyone wanted to elaborate or offer
speculation, but no one ever did. He could go on like that all day, and
often did.
I once wrote a book making good-natured fun of the old man for
his many interesting and unusual talents when behind the wheel — the
unerring ability to get lost in any city, to drive the wrong way down a
one-way street so many times that people would eventually come and
watch from their doorways, or spend an entire afternoon driving
around within sight of an amusement park or other eagerly sought
attraction without actually finding the entrance. One of my teenaged
children recently read that book for the first time and came with it into
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the kitchen where my wife was cooking and said in a tone of amazed
discovery, ‘But this is Dad,’ meaning of course me.
I have to admit it. I have become my father. I even read
numberplates, though my particular interest is the slogans. Many
states, you see, include a friendly message or nugget of information on
their plates, like ‘Land of Lincoln’ for Illinois, ‘Vacationland’ for
Maine, ‘Sunshine State’ for Florida, and the zippily inane ‘Shore
Thing’ for New Jersey.
I like to make quips and comments on these so when, for instance,
we see Pennsylvania’s ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Pennsylvania,’ I turn
to the passengers and say in an injured tone, ‘Then why doesn’t he
call?’ However, I am the only one who finds this an amusing way to
pass a long journey.
It’s interesting — well, perhaps not interesting exactly, but
certainly a fact — that many states append slogans that are pretty well
meaningless. I have never understood what Ohio was thinking when it
called itself the ‘Buckeye State’ and I haven’t the remotest idea what
New York means by dubbing itself the ‘Empire State.’ As far as I am
aware, New York’s many undoubted glories do not include overseas
possessions.
Indiana, meanwhile, calls itself the ‘Hoosier State’ and has done
for 150 years. No one has ever satisfactorily deduced (possibly
because who after all cares?) where the term comes from, though I can
tell you from experience that if you mention this in a book 250
people-from Indiana will write to you with 250 different explanations
and the unanimous view that you are a dunce.
All this is by way of introducing our important lesson of the day,
namely that the United States isn’t so much a country as a collection
of fifty small independent nations, and you forget this at your peril. It
all goes back to the setting up of a federal government after the War of
Independence when the former colonies didn’t trust each other. In
order to keep them happy, the states were given an extraordinary
range of powers. Even now each state controls all kinds of matters to
do with your personal life — where, when and at what age you can
legally drink; whether you may carry a concealed weapon, own
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fireworks, or legally gamble; how old you have to be to drive; whether
you will be killed in the electric chair, by lethal injection or not at all,
and how bad you have to be to get yourself in such a fix; and so on.
If I leave our town of Hanover, and drive over the Connecticut
River to Vermont, I will find myself suddenly subject to perhaps 500
completely different laws. I must, among much else, buckle my seat
belt, acquire a license if I wish to practice dentistry, and give up all
hope of erecting roadside hoardings, since Vermont is one of just two
states to outlaw highway advertising. On the other hand, I may carry a
gun on my person with impunity and if I am arrested for drunk driving
I may legally decline to give a blood sample.
Since I always buckle up anyway, don’t own a gun, and haven’t the
faintest desire to stick my fingers in other people’s mouths, even for
very good money, these matters don’t impinge on me. Elsewhere,
however, differences between state laws can be dramatic, even
alarming.
States decide what may or may not be taught in their schools, and
in many places, particularly in the Deep South, curricula must accord
with very narrow religious views. In Alabama, for instance, it is illegal
to teach evolution as anything other than an ‘unproven belief’. All
biology textbooks must carry a disclaimer stating ‘This textbook
discusses evolution, a controversial theory some scientists present as a
scientific explanation for the origin of living things.’ By law, teachers
must give equal weight to the notion that Earth was created in seven
days and everything on it— fossils, coal deposits, dinosaur bones — is
no more than 7,500 years old. I don’t know what slogan Alabama puts
on its numberplates, but ‘Proud to Be Backward’ sounds apt to me.
I shouldn’t talk because New Hampshire has some pretty
retrograde laws of its own. It is the only state that declines to observe
Martin Luther King Day (he associated with communists, you see)
and one of only a couple not to guarantee at least a few basic rights to
gay people. Worse, it has the most demented numberplate slogan, the
strange and pugnacious ‘Live Free or Die.’ Perhaps I take these things
too literally, but I really don’t like driving around with an explicit vow
to expire if things don’t go right. I would much prefer something a bit
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more equivocal and less terminal — ‘Live Free or Pout’ perhaps, or
‘Live Free If It’s All the Same to You Thanks Very Much.’
On the other hand; New Hampshire is the only state to guarantee in
its constitution the right of the people to rise-up and overthrow the
government. I have no intention of exercising this option, you
understand, but there is a certain comfort in having it in reserve,
especially if they start messing with our schoolbooks.
NOTE
Pay attention to the difference in the following British and
American terms:
AmE American Revolution, (American) Revolutionary War cf. BrE
(American) War of Independence
AmE drunk driving cf. BrE drink-driving
AmE license plate cf. BrE numberplate
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:
Alabama
amusement park
Buckeye State
Connecticut River
Deep South
drunk driving
Empire State
federal government
Florida
highway
Hoosier State
Illinois
Indiana
license plate
Maine
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