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7. Do you give much to charity?
8. Over the years, I have grown quite fond of her.
9. He was born around 1650 but his origin remains obscure.
10. He is too fond of the sound of his own voice.
11. I have very fond memories of my time in Spain.
12. Her article showed no charity towards her former friends.
13. He graduated with distinction.
14. I don’t think I’ve accomplished very much today.
IV. Below are words from the active vocabulary, 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:
charitable: selfish, generous, liberal, kind, altruistic, inhumane
to accomplish: to fulfill, to do, to achieve, to fail, to perform, to
waste, to downfall, to be idle
distinct: explicit, separate, implicit, obscure, clear-cut, unclear
admirable
V. Translate into English, using the active vocabulary:
: wonderful, frustrating, perfect, disappointing
1. Многие животные погибли от голода в засушливых
районах.
2. Обама был приведен к присяге как новоизбранный
президент.
3. Его арестовали за вождение в нетрезвом виде.
4. Между этими синонимичными словами существует тонкое
различие.
5. Иногда в метро можно увидеть людей, просящих
милостыню.
6. Барт окончил вуз с отличием.
7. Этот благотворительный акт был освещен в прессе.
8. У моего коллеги загадочное прошлое. Единственное, что я
знаю, — это то, что он остался сиротой в возрасте 12 лет.
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9. В День инаугурации обычно проводится парад и новый
президент произносит речь о своих планах в отношении
США.
10. Сочувствие к бедным и сиротам заставило его заниматься
благотворительностью.
11. Ты никогда ничего не достигнешь, если не будешь
проявлять должного уважения к своим предшественникам.
12. Ущерб от наводнения оценен в 1 миллион долларов.
13. Только по-настоящему гуманный человек может завоевать
всеобщее уважение.
14. Я считаю его недостойным тех высоких знаков отличия,
которые он получил от правительства.
15. Благодаря некоторым достижениям в области науки, он
стал знаменитым.
16. Моя мама всегда хотела, чтобы я вышла замуж за
красивого молодого человека из уважаемой семьи
среднего класса.
VI. Divide the text into parts and distribute the parts between
the group members for a literary translation.
VII. Choose the correct variant:
1. Which of the presidents’ nickname is “the Father of his
Country”?
a) G. Washington
b) A. Lincoln
c) T. Jefferson
2. Who was the author of the Gettysburg Address?
a) T. Zachary
b) J. Kennedy
c) A. Lincoln
3. The main author of the Declaration of Independence is:
a) W. Woodrow
b) T. Jefferson
c) T. Roosevelt
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4. Who ruled the country during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
a) Warren G. Harding
b) G. Washington
c) J. Kennedy
5. Who is known as a “Silent Cal”?
a) C. Calvin
b) W. Harding
c) H. W. Harrison
6. Who was the Father of the Constitution?
a) J. Madison
b) T. Roosevelt
c) G. Washington
7. Who was President of the U.S. when Wall Street crashed and the
Great Depression started?
a) U. Grant
b) H. Hoover
c) G. Cleveland
DISCUSSION
1. Bill Bryson writes about obscure figures among U.S.
presidents. Whom would you name as really outstanding
figures?
2. Make individual PowerPoint presentations about the following
presidents:
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
Abraham Lincoln
Ulysses S. Grant
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Dwight D. Eisenhower
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John F. Kennedy
Bill Clinton
Barack Obama
3. Do you share the author’s opinion about abolishing President’s
Day in order not to commemorate all the American presidents
but only those who deserve it?
4. What qualities should a real president possess?
5. Can you name some distinctive figures from Russian history
who deserve to be called the heroes of their country?
6. Whom do you consider to be the most respected leaders of
Russia? Of the USA?
7. Do you agree that a president shouldn’t be elected for more
than two terms? Give your reasons.
8. Would you like to have a female president ruling the country?
Justify your point of view.
PROJECTS
1. Create the portrait of a perfect president (make a presentation,
both visual and verbal).
2. If you had a chance to run for president, what would you say to
the people in order to be elected? What slogan would you have
and what would your program consist of? Write an election
speech, addressing people of your country.
TEXT 2
DROWNING IN RED TAPE
I’m not even going to begin to tell you about the frustration of
trying to get a foreign-born spouse or other loved one registered as a
legal resident in the United States because I haven’t space and anyway
it is much too boring. Also, I can’t talk about it without weeping
copiously. Also, you would think I was making most of it up.
You would scoff, I am quite sure, if I told you that an acquaintance
of ours — an academic of high standing — sat open-mouthed while
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his daughter was asked such questions as ‘Have you ever engaged in
any unlawful commercial vice, including, but not limited to, illegal
gambling?’ and ‘Have you ever been a member of, or in any way
affiliated with, the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party?’
and — my particular favorite — ‘Do you plan to practice polygamy in
the US?’ His daughter I should point out, was five years old.
You see, I am weeping already.
There is something seriously wrong with a country that asks such
questions of any person, not simply because the questions are
intrusive and irrelevant, and not because inquiries into one’s political
affinities fly in the face of the American Constitution, but because
they are such a monumental waste of everyone’s time. Who after all,
when asked if he intends to engage in genocide, espionage, hijacking,
multiple marriages or any other of an extremely long and interestingly
paranoid list of undesirable activities is going to say: ‘I certainly do!
Say, will this harm my chances of getting in?’
If all that was involved was answering a list of pointless questions
under oath, then I would just sigh and let it be. But it is infinitely more
than that. Acquiring legal status in America involves fingerprints,
medical examinations, blood tests, letters of affidavit, birth and
marriage certificates, employment records, proof of financial standing,
and much else — and all of it must be assembled, validated, presented
and paid for in very specific ways. My wife recently had to make a
250-mile round trip to give a blood sample at a clinic recognized by
the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service even though one of
the finest teaching hospitals in America is here in the town in which
we live.
There are endless forms to fill in, each with pages of instructions,
which often contradict other instructions and almost always lead to the
need for more forms. Here is a typical fragment of instructions
regarding the presentation of fingerprints:
“Submit a complete set of fingerprints on Form FD-258…
Complete the information on the top of the chart and write your A# (if
any) in the space marked ‘Your no. OCA’ or ‘Miscellaneous no.
MNU.’ ”
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If you don’t have form FD-258 (and you don’t) or aren’t sure
which is your MNU number (and you aren’t), you can spend days
repeatedly dialing a phone number that is forever engaged, only to be
told when you finally do get through that you must call another
number, which the person tells you once in a mumble and you don’t
quite catch before you are cut off. It is like this with every encounter
you have with every branch of the American government. After a
while you begin to understand why flinty-eyed cowpokes in places
like Montana turn their ranches into fortresses and threaten to shoot
any government officer fool enough to walk into the cross-hairs.
And it’s no good just filling in the forms to the best of your ability,
because if anything is even a tiny bit out of order, it is all sent back.
My wife had her file returned once because the distance between her
chin and hairline on a passport-sized photograph was out by oneeighth of an inch.
This has been going on for two years for us. Understand, my wife
does not want to practise brain surgery, engage in espionage, assist or
collude in the trafficking of drugs, participate in the overthrow of the
American government (though frankly I would not stand in her way),
or take part in any other proscribed activity. She just wants to do a
little shopping and be legally resident with her family. Doesn’t seem
too much to ask.
Goodness knows what the hold-up is. Occasionally we get a
request for some additional document. Every few months I write to
ask what is happening, but I never get a response. Three weeks ago we
received a letter from the INS office in London, which we thought
must be the official approval at last. Good joke! It was a computergenerated letter saying that because her application had been inactive
for twelve months it was being cancelled.
All this is a very roundabout way of getting to a story concerning
some British friends of ours here in Hanover. The husband is a
professor at the local university, and has been for some years.
Eighteen months ago, he and his family went back to England for a
year’s sabbatical. When they arrived at Heathrow, excited to be home,
the immigration officer asked them how long they were staying.
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‘A year,’ my friend answered brightly.
‘And what about the American child?’ the officer asked with a
cocked eyebrow.
Their youngest, you see, had been born in America, and they had
never bothered to register him as British. He was only four, so it
wasn’t as if he would be looking for work or anything.
They explained the situation. The immigration man listened
gravely, then went off to consult a supervisor.
It had been eight years since my friends had left Britain, and they
weren’t sure just how much more like America it might have grown in
that period. So they waited uneasily. After a minute the immigration
man returned, followed by his supervisor and said to them in a low
voice, “My supervisor is going to ask you how long you intend to stay
in Britain. Say, ‘Two weeks.’”
So the supervisor asked them how long they intended to stay, and
they said, ‘Two weeks.’
‘Good,’ said the supervisor, then added as if by way of
afterthought, ‘It might be an idea to register your child as British
within the next day or two, in case you should decide to extend your
stay.’
‘Of course,’ said my friend.
And they were in. And that is why I love Britain. That and
the pubs and Branston pickle and country churchyards and a
great deal else, but mostly because they still have a public
service that is capable of genuine humanity and doesn’t act as if
it loathes you.
Compare American and British spellings:
AmE to practice — BrE to practise
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:
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Constitution
cowpoke
Immigration Service
inch
Montana
Naturalization Service
pickle
ranch
sabbatical
ACTIVE VOCABULARY
red tape — silly detailed unnecessary official rules that delay action:
to get caught up in red tape; to get involved in red tape.
to frustrate v — 1. to cause someone to have feelings of annoyed
disappointment or dissatisfaction:
this awkward situation and don’t know what to do.
the fulfillment of, cause the failure of:
I am feeling rather frustrated in
2. to prevent
to frustrate plans/hopes.
frustration n
frustrations.
spouse n — a partner in marriage; one’s husband or wife:
spouse: faithful spouse.
academic n — a person from the academic world, a college or
university teacher.
to intrude v
don’t want to intrude on you — I know how busy you are.
intrusive
intrusion n
to inquire v — 1. to seek information; ask a question/questions
2. to carry out an examination or investigation: usu. with
to waste
purpose:
take proper advantage of:
v —
— the state of being frustrated: Life is full of
beloved
into, on, upon
adj —
to waste money/electricity/water/efforts.
intruding or tending to intrude.
— the act of intruding.
1. to use up or spend without real need, gain, or
— to enter unwanted or unasked: I
into.
2. to fail to
to waste an opportunity
3. to make
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weak, feeble; wear away the strength, vigor, or life:
wasted by age and disease.
a man
waste not, want not
and you’ll never be hungry or in need.
espionage n — 1. the act of spying. 2. the use of spies by a
government to learn the military secrets of other nations 3. the
use of spies in industry to learn the secrets of other companies.
to hijack v — 1. to seize control forcibly of (an aircraft, bus, ship,
etc.), esp. in order to go a nonscheduled destination or make
political demands. 2. to stop a moving vehicle in order to rob
it.
pointless
blood test — an examination of a small amount of a person’s
blood for diagnosis, classification, blood count, etc.:
blood test (done).
certificate n — 1. a written or printed statement by which a fact
is formally or officially certified or attested:
certificate.
sample n —
group, species, etc.:
sample questions from last year’s exam
humor.
WORD COMBINATIONS AND PHRASES
adj —
without meaning, relevance, or force; senseless.
a part, piece, or item representative of a whole thing,
— [saying] use what you have carefully,
to have a
birth/marriage
samples of wallpaper; a blood sample;
;
a sample of his
to fill out a form
form by answering questions in the spaces provided
AmE
cf.
to fill in a form
BrE
— to complete a
ASSIGNMENTS
I. Translate the following sentences into Russian paying
attention to the active vocabulary:
1. He was frustrated to find no support among his friends.
2. Academics are often criticized for thinking only about ideas
and theories, but knowing very little about real life.
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3. All his efforts were wasted.
4. I decided not to waste money on a hotel.
5. Jack’s remark was absolutely pointless.
6. How am I going to fill out this form if I don’t know Chinese?
7. If you leave the lights on all the time it wastes both electricity
and money.
8. His mother had sacrificed the best years of her life for him, and
he was determined that such sacrifice should not be wasted.
9. The book is a waste of money — I wouldn’t recommend it to
anyone.
10. There’s a lot of wasted space in our apartment.
11. The thought of the wasted years behind her made Jane sick
with bitterness.
12. They took samples of my blood.
13. Running for president, he promised to eliminate the red tape
forever.
14. Some of the commercial activities were a cover for espionage.
15. She may call it research; I call it industrial espionage.
16. We searched until we knew it would be pointless to continue.
17. The plane was hijacked by two armed men on a flight from
London to Rome.
18. There have been a series of hijackings recently in the area.
19. I called the station to inquire about train times.
20. Might I inquire why you have not mentioned this till now?
21. He inquired her name.
22. Samples of the water contained pesticide.
23. Why waste money on clothes you don’t need?
24. We searched until we knew it would be pointless to continue.
25. What frustrates him is that there’s too little money to spend on
the project.
26. The constant presence of the media was very intrusive.
II. Paraphrase the following sentences using the active
vocabulary:
1. As soon as she saw her former husband she
disappointed
.
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felt
annoyed and
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