Основные тексты для чтения и понимания Текст 1

My brother’s name is James. He’s thirty-four and he’s married. His wife’s name is Liz. She’s thirty-two and she’s an engineer. James is a dentist. They have two children. Their daughter, Helen, is seven and their son, Sam, is four.

Согласитесь или не согласитесь.

1 James is married.

2 Liz is James’s wife.

3 Liz is thirty-four.

4 James and Liz have two daughters.

5 Helen’s brother is four.

Текст 2 Dolores Valentine

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Dolores Valentine knows all about love. She is 65 years old and has been married six times. The first time she was a bride, her wedding day was on her seventeenth birthday. The last time she got married, she was 62. Her bridegroom that day was 75 and he died two weeks later.

Dolores has been married six times but she has never been divorced. All six of her husbands died while they were married to her. Six times she has been a loving wife and six times she has been left a widow. Now she is engaged again and is going to marry a man much younger than herself. Her fiancé is a thirty-nine-year-old farmer - strong and healthy. This time Dolores feels pretty sure that she is going to die first to leave her husband a widower.

Текст 3 British and American families

British and American families are small. In fact the populations of both British and the USA have nearly stopped growing.

In the old days, a "typical" family had a father, a mother and two or three children, with grandparents living near. Most children still live in this kind of family, but in both countries there is a growing number of "single parent families", with only one parent.

Some parents are single because they are divorced, but many other young parents do not get married at all. The typical American family has more money than a British family. Some have two or three cars, large modern kitchens and more electrical goods. They spend more money on clothes and food.

Сравните американские, британские и русские семьи.

Согласитесь или не согласитесь.

1. Young people should only leave home after they are married.

2. Young people should never leave home without their parents' permission.

3. Young people who live with their parents should pay rent to them.

4. The state should help young people find a home of their own.

Текст 4 Touchy Topics

In North America when people meet each other for the first time, they talk about things like family, work, school, or sports. They ask questions like "Do you have any brothers or sisters?", "Where do you work?", "What school do you go to?", and "Do you like sports?" They also ask questions like "Where do you come from?" and "Where do you live?" These are polite questions. They are not personal or private.

But some things are personal or private, and questions about them are not polite. People don't ask questions about a person's salary. They don't ask how much someone paid for something. It is OK to ask children how old they are, but it is not polite to ask older people their age. It is also not polite to ask people questions about politics or religion unless you know them very well. People don't ask unmarried people "Why are you single?", and they don't ask a married couple with no children "Why don't you have any children?"

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Are they polite or not polite when you meet someone for the first time in North America? Are they polite or not polite in your country?

Polite Not polite

a) What does your wife do?

b) Do you believe in God?

c) How much money do you earn?

d) How many children do you have?

e) Why aren't you married?

f) Do you like baseball?

g) How old are you, Mr. Lee?

h) Are you a Democrat or a Republican?

i) How much was your watch?