- •Т.В. Поплавская т.А. Сысоева
- •Ббк 81.432.1 – 923.1
- •Contents
- •Introduction
- •3. In what situation would you use the following set expressions? Give your own examples.
- •4. Match the words and their definitions.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the text.
- •2. Use the text to answer the following questions.
- •III. Follow-up activities
- •IV. Additional tasks
- •Violent English
- •A Confluence of Cultures
- •How to Plan a Town
- •2. Use the text to answer the following questions.
- •Bungalows for sale
- •3. Look at the verbs below. Match each one with an appropriate phrase from the list on the right. Use the expressions in contexts of your own.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. The following extracts from guide books describe five of the world’s most famous cities. Work in small groups. Read the descriptions and decide which city is being described in each text.
- •2. Read the extracts again and point out the facts that helped you decide which city is being described.
- •3. Work with a partner and discuss these questions.
- •4. Complete these sentences using appropriate phrases from the text. Make any changes to the phrases that are necessary.
- •5. Look at the adverbial phrases below and decide which of them have negative or limiting meaning.
- •6. Rewrite the sentences below, starting with the word or words given.
- •7. Speak about your plans for the holidays. Use at least ten expressions from Ex. 5 and 6.
- •III. Follow-up activities
- •IV. Additional tasks
- •5. Match the words to make up phrases. Explain their meaning in English.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the following extract from the book.
- •2. Use the text to answer the following questions.
- •3. Read the remaining parts of the book and dwell on the following issues.
- •4. Becky is in the habit of itemizing clothes (her own and other people’s). How does she describe/speak about clothes? Compile “Becky’s clothes and fashion vocabulary”.
- •Shopaholic Abroad
- •I. Vocabulary work
- •1. Study the following words.
- •2. Fill in the gaps with the suitable word from the box. Put the words in the correct form.
- •3. Define the following words and phrases in English. Make up sentences with these words.
- •4. Match the words and their definitions.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the following extract from the book.
- •2. Use the text to answer the following questions.
- •3. Read the remaining parts of the book and dwell on the following issues.
- •Shopaholic Ties the Knot
- •I. Vocabulary work
- •1. Study the following words.
- •2. Match the words and their definitions.
- •3. Fill in the words from the active vocabulary list.
- •4. In what situations would you say the following? Provide your own context for these utterances. Then find them in the text and check their actual usage.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the following extract from the book.
- •2. Use the text to answer the following questions.
- •3. Read the remaining parts of the book and dwell on the following issues.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •2. Read the whole text. Do we have the press we deserve?
- •3. Use the text to answer the following questions.
- •5. Explain how you understand the following idiomatic expressions: to throw out the baby with the bath water, a toothless watchdog, to get a rough ride. In what contexts can you use them?
- •III. Follow-up activities
- •IV. Additional tasks
- •Publican Jailed for Assault
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the text. What is the topic and the implied main idea of paragraphs 6, 7 and 9?
- •2. True or false.
- •3. Select the best answer.
- •4. Discuss the following issue: What is the most important overall message the writer wants the reader to understand about stress?
- •III. Follow-up activities
- •Bill’s Eyes
- •5. Complete each sentence with the appropriate phrase.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •4. Explain the final scene of the story. Were you shocked by it or was it quite predictable? Give your reasons.
- •III. Follow-up activities
- •IV. Additional tasks
- •The Emergency Ward
- •I. Vocabulary work
- •1. Study the following words.
- •2. Choose the best definition of the italicized word.
- •3. Match the words to make up word combinations from the text.
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the text.
- •2. Choose the best answer. Explain your choice by providing evidence from the text.
- •3. On the basis of the evidence from the text, mark these statements as accurate inferences, inaccurate inferences or insufficient evidence.
- •III. Follow-up activities
- •IV. Additional tasks
- •Home reading
- •2. Can we call Champagne and Jane opposites? Prove it. Do you believe such opposites could “attract”?
- •II. Discussing the text
- •1. Read the required extracts from the book “Can You Keep a Secret?” by s. Kinsella and consider the following questions.
- •2. Agree or disagree: Being stressed out is an excuse for blabbering all your secrets to a complete stranger.
- •4. Look at the expressions in bold in these sentences. Is mind a verb or a noun in each one?
- •5. Match each expression in Ex. 4 with one of these meanings.
- •II.Discussing the text
- •II. Discussing the text
- •3. Comment on the “look-alike” pattern theory. Does it work in real life?
- •II. Tasks for “Man and Boy” by t. Parsons
- •III. Tasks for “Man and Wife” by t. Parsons
- •IV. Tasks for “How to be Good” by n. Hornby
- •Reference
- •Читай и обсуждай Пособие по курсу «Практикум по культуре речевого общения»
2. Use the text to answer the following questions.
1. Becky says: “I’m paid to tell other people how to organize their money.” Do you agree that she gets money for something she can’t do efficiently? Give your reasons. How do people get into such professions?
2. Do you believe Becky’s professional skills have improved since her first job at Personal Investment Periodical? Provide arguments to prove your point.
3. What are Becky’s responsibilities at work? How is she treated by her boss and colleagues?
4. Why do you think Becky doesn’t get a promotion?
5. Does Becky enjoy what she is doing? What job would suit her more?
6. What ploy does Becky resort to in order to make people take her seriously? Do you think it works?
7. Is dressing well essential for Becky? Is there a dress code she has to follow? Compare her dreams and reality as regards shopping at large and clothes in particular.
3. Read the remaining parts of the book and dwell on the following issues.
1. How does Becky behave during press conferences? Can you call her behaviour business-like? Give your reasons. What is she planning to change in the future?
2. Does Becky manage to produce a favourable impression on high-powered people and top-notch specialists? What makes people laugh at her in some situations?
3. Comment on the incident with the Websters. Is Becky qualified enough to give recommendations to Martin and Janice as regards their financial matters? Is Becky to blame? Could she have seen it coming? Think what you would have said to the Websters if you were in Becky’s shoes.
4. Why doesn’t Eric Foreman fit Becky’s idea of a high-powered journalist? What are Becky’s assumptions about him based upon? Who does Eric Foreman call “fat cats” and why? Does he attend conferences just to stir up a bit of trouble?
5. What tips on writing an article did Eric Foreman give to Becky? Did Becky act professionally when collecting information for the article? Can adding some “human interest” to the article be called a lie? Or is it only an exaggeration?
6. How did Becky start her TV career? Was she well-prepared for her first interview? What made people take Becky as a financial expert during the show? Did Becky’s participating in the show boost her career? What was the aftermath of the TV show for Brandon Communications?
4. Becky is in the habit of itemizing clothes (her own and other people’s). How does she describe/speak about clothes? Compile “Becky’s clothes and fashion vocabulary”.
5. Dwell on the notion of ‘dumbing-down effect’. What does it mean? What TV programmes follow this principle and what does it depend on? Make use of the following words and expressions: attention span, frustrated, the more dumbed down the better, tricky questions, to let the figures sink into the audience’s mind.
6. Compare Luke’s and Becky’s behaviour during the high-powered debate and the arguments each of them provides. Whose persuasive strategy and tactics are more effective and why?
7. Dwell on the role of non-verbal means of communication in the last episode where Becky is having a business meeting with Luke Brandon. Do you believe she “overdid” it? Give your reasons.
8. During the TV programme Becky meets several celebrities. Each of them is peculiar in their own way. Do they behave the way celebrities normally do? Find evidence in the text to support your point. Prove that celebrities are only human after all.
9. Compare Becky’s manner of communicating with different people: Luke and Alicia, Suze, the Websters, Eric Foreman, the hosts and guests of the TV show. How can you characterize Becky as a communicant? What tips would you give Becky in order to improve her communicative skills?
10. One of Becky’s communicative failures was that she couldn’t persuade the Websters she did not fancy Tom. “Life would be a lot easier if conversations were rewindable and erasable, like videos,” says Becky. How should she have behaved in order to produce a different impression on Martin, Janice and Tom himself if their conversations had been “rewound and erased”?
III. Follow-up activities
1. How do people choose a career? Make up a list of things that have to be taken into consideration when you’re thinking over your job prospects.
2. Imagine that you had to take up a career you don’t want. How would you feel? What would happen if you had to work in a sphere you know nothing about?
3. Work out recommendations for a journalist on writing a good article.
4. What are the ways of making your speech more persuasive? How can you produce the desired effect on the audience?
5. Role-play a talk show, where the guests hold opposing views (e.g. a shopaholic vs. an economical person, a financial expert vs. a person that knows nothing about finance, a representative of a financial company and a client that has been ripped off by the company etc.).