4KTJ5[1]

Unfortunately television, computer, the internet are gradually taking over what is used to be the domain of literature. Some people really think that the tempo of modern life is too fast to waste time on reading. But a great number of people are sure that books haven’t lost their prestige and value.

The world of books is enormous. Many people are fond of reading and their interests are different. “Tastes differ”, they say. One person can enjoy reading romantic novels but another one thinks it is boring. At the same time, he gets absorbed in reading a thrilling story or a whodunit and finds it an exciting pastime.

So it is rather difficult to give any advice on reading. Have you had a chance to read the essays of Francis Bacon? (He lived about the same time as Shakespeare.) They are full of good things about reading. Here are some of them, from the essay ‘Of Studies’.

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

“Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk discourse; but to weigh and consider.”

Can there be any advice better than that? The first quotation tells you how to read books of different kinds. I suppose most romantic novels are “to be tasted”: it’s enough to dip into them and read leisurely. If you’re fond of crime stories you will read them quickly, you’ll swallow them. And then, there are books that you’ll read slowly and carefully. If a book is on an important subject, and a subject you are interested in, you will want to chew and digest it. And you will want to weigh what the author says and consider his ideas and arguments.

The process of reading books in a foreign language can be rather slow. And in case it becomes too slow it might be tempting to give up trying. So it is wiser to choose a book “made simple”. There are some authors whose writing-style is fairly easy, Oscar Wilde for example. His books are popular in European schools and colleges because the short stories he wrote are in a very simple style.

Vocabulary

enormous (adj) огромный absorb (v) впитывать, поглощать

absorbed in reading поглощенный чтением leisure (n) досуг, отдых

leisure reading развлекательное легкое чтение whodunit

consider (v) обсуждать, обдумывать consideration (n) обсуждение, рассмотрение considerable (adj) значительный considerably (adv) значительно

tempt (v) искушать, соблазнять tempting (adj) заманчивый

fairly (adv) честно, совершенно, довольно domain (n) владения, сфера, область знаний

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domain of literature область литературы mould (v) отливать, формировать reward (v) награждать

rewarding (adj) стоящий

Exercises

Find the sentences with the words given in the vocabulary, translate them into

Answer the following questions:

Why did one clever man say that “except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book? Do you agree with him?

Do you with the people who think that books have lost their value? What are other sources of information nowadays?

Do you think they can fully take the place of books? How do you usually choose a book to read?

Why is it difficult to give any advice on reading?

Do you follow anybody’s advice when you choose a book to read? What makes you read books?

What books do you use in your studies?

Are you a keen reader? What books do you read in your free time?

What do you prefer, to read a book or to watch a screen version of it on TV? Give your reasons?

Do you discuss the contents of the books you have read with your friends?

Read the proverb given in the text. Translate it and try to give its Russian equivalent. Discuss the meaning of the proverb in groups. Give examples of the books and your arguments.

Proverb: Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested.

Translate the following sentences into English.

Кроме человека, нет ничего более замечательного чем книга.

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Время, проведенное за чтением книг никогда не потрачено даром. Некоторые люди считают, что книги начали терять свою ценность. Телевидение и Интернет постепенно начинают преобладать над литературой. Многие люди любят чтение и считают, что это увлекательное времяпровождение.

В некоторые книг достаточно заглянуть (dip in) и прочитать для развлечения. Некоторые книги читаются очень быстро, просто проглатываются, но быстро забываются.

Книги по некоторым важным темам надо внимательно прочитать, переварить и поразмышлять над идеями автора.

Читать книги на иностранном языке в оригинале довольно трудно и хочется прекратить ее чтение.

Книги Оскара Уайльда легки по стилю, поэтому они популярны и многие студенты с удовольствием читают их в оригинале.

Speak about the role of reading in your life. Text III.

Read the text about the famous English writer Daniel Defoe and his best book

“The life and strange surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe”. Copy out all the unknown words and be ready to answer the questions

My favourite book

I could read when I was five years old, but I preferred being read to reading myself like all other children in the world. Most of all I was fond of Russian and Italian fairy tales. Then I got interested in Russian classical literature. When I was in my senior forms I was keen on history and liked reading historical novels. I cannot say that I have never been fond of reading science fiction stories and detective stories. Reading has become my favourite pastime which brings me a world of good. There is no better way to know about life than reading books.

One of the most impressive books I have read is “The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe. It was published in 1719 and is still popular among the readers in all countries of the world.

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), a butcher’s son, led an exciting and adventurous life. He was born in 1660 near London and tried many different jobs. In 1685 he took part in the rebellion against King James II and was lucky to avoid execution. He was later put in prison for publishing opinions against the government, and even spent time as a secret agent.

Defoe published his own newspaper, and all his writing is vivid and realistic, like that of a good journalist. “A Journal of the Plague Year,” for example, tells exactly what it was like in London during the plague; and many people think that “A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain” is the liveliest guide-book ever

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written. He also wrote hundreds of pamphlets and articles on everything from politics to pirates. In all his writing Defoe showed an interest in people and the difficulties facing them in the society of his time.

Defoe is best known as the writer of “Robinson Crusoe”, which he published in 1719. Many people think of this as the first successful English novel.

The story begins when Robinson is shipwrecked on a desert island. He makes a raft, and uses it to carry useful things from the wrecked ship: food, sewingneedles, a knife, a gun and some ammunition. He makes his home on the island, and lives there alone for twenty-four years. Most of Defoe’s book tells how Robinson hunts, fishes, builds shelters, keeps goats, tries to teach parrots to talk, and counts the days, weeks and years until rescue comes. One morning he finds a footprint in the sand; cannibals have landed on the island. He rescues their victim, a man he calls Friday because he found him on a Friday. Together they scare away the cannibals and they live on the island for three more years until a ship comes and rescues them.

Robinson is a made-up person. But Defoe based his story on real life. He read accounts in a newspaper of how a real sailor, Alexander Selkirk, had been marooned on a desert island and survived. Later, he read Selkirk’s autobiography, telling of his life on the island. Defoe used Selkirk’s account as the basis of his story. But most of what he wrote – the character of Robinson Crusoe, the long, lonely wait, the coming of the cannibals and the rescue of Friday-comes from his own imagination.

“Robinson Crusoe” shows a so-called civilized man having to survive on his own in the wild. We all wonder how we would survive without the help we get from modern appliances and the rest of the community, and Robinson sets us a good example.

II. Answer the questions:

1.When was the book about the adventures of Robinson Crusoe published?

2.What can you say about the life of the author of this book?

3.Using the information from the text prove that Defoe was also a good journalist.

4.Do you agree that “Robinson Crusoe” is one of the most interesting English novels? Give your reasons.

5.What is the subject matter of the book?

6.What does the author describe in his novel?

7.Is Robinson Crusoe a real person?

8.What is Defoe’s book based on?

9.What comes from the author’s imagination?

10.Why do you think this book is so impressive and so popular among the readers in all countries of the world?

III. Speak about your favourite book using text III as a model.

The main points in your speech can be:

Your likes and dislikes in reading.

Your favourite book.

Some facts about the author’s life and activities.

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The contents of the book.

Make use of the following words and word combinations: scene - сцена, место действия

style - авторский стиль subject - тема

mood - настроение character - персонаж

main characters - главные герой plot - фабула, содержание

setting - место действия. The story is set in … favourite pastime – любимое времяпровождение impressive – выразительный, впечатляющий exciting – волнующий

Text IV

My favourite writer: Ernest Hemingway. (1899-1961)

I can’t say that I know American literature very well. Of course I read “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” written by Mark Twain, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and some detective stories by Dick Francis and Asimov’s science fiction novels. But my favorite is Ernest Hemingway.

Ernest Hemingway was born in a Chicago suburb, where his father was a doctor.

In high school the athletic youngster became a star on the football team. He also did some amateur boxing. Shortly after his graduation the United States was plunged into World War I in Europe. He tried to enlist but was turned down because of an eye injury he had suffered in the ring. Still he volunteered as a Red Cross ambulance driver and was attached to the Italian Army. He was wounded in the action, and that was the beginning of his lifetime fascination with violence, war, and the imminence of death.

Twenty years later he was in Spain, observing and taking an active part in the revolution. In World War II, though he served in no official military capacity, the United States government awarded him the Bronze Star for fighting in a guerilla band.

Between wars he managed to keep excitement in his life by involving himself in such dangerous pursuits as bullfighting and big-game hunting in the wilds of Africa. By sharing all these experiences with millions of readers, Hemingway became one of the most famous men in the entire world.

He was a writer by trade, and he wrote as he lived, with a powerful style devoid of tricks or flourish or elaborate syntax. His language is always terse and permeated with understatement. Out of his World War I experiences came “A farewell to Arms”, his famous antiwar novel. His adventures in Spain produced the classic novel “For Whom the bell Tolls”, and his brilliant treatise titled “Death in the Afternoon” is still regarded as a masterpiece on the ancient art of bullfighting. In

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1952 he received the Pulitzer Prize for his fascinating story of a struggle between a man and a great fish. It was “The Old man and the Sea.” Two years later he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

In 1961, when he knew he was dying of an incurable disease, the writer who seemed so preoccupied with man’s inevitable rendezvous with death took his own life. It was a sad, but fittingly violent final chapter to the career of one of the most important writers of the twentieth century.

Read the text, copy out the unknown words and translate them. Answer the following questions:

What American writers and books do you know?

Have you read any book by the American writer Ernest Hemingway? Where and when was Ernest Hemingway born?

Was he fond of sport at school?

What did Hemingway do after his graduation from high school? What army was he attached to as a volunteer?

What happened to him in the army?

What did Hemingway do twenty years later?

What was he awarded by the United States government in World War II? What did he do between the wars?

Why did Ernest Hemingway become one of the most famous men in the world? What book came out of his World War I experiences?

What was Hemingway’s author’s style?

What novel was produced by his adventures in Spain?

What prize did he get for his story “The Old man and the Sea”? What was a sad final chapter to Hemingway’s life and career?

Give the summary of all the facts about E. Hemingway’s life and his books. Speak about your favourite author, his life and literary career

Discussion.

There are different points of view about the importance of reading in our life. Discuss the problem in two groups in order to make a decision. Think of your arguments. Discuss the problem as a debate.

Group I. Students who are keen readers.

They are sure that books haven’t lost their value and they are still the main source of information.

Group II. Students who are nonreaders.

They don’t read much and think that in our time of technological progress books have begun to loose their prestige and value.

Dialogue.

Speak to your partner about the role of reading nowadays, your favourite writers and books.

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Unit 12

Theme: Seasons. Weather. Environment.

Grammar: Sequence of tenses

Texts

Dialogues

Vocabulary notes

1.Practice reading the following words: season сезон, время года

spring весна summer лето autumn осень winter зима year год

2.Practice asking and answering the following questions:

How many seasons are there in a year? — There are four.

What are they? — They are spring, summer, autumn and winter.

3.Answer the following questions:

1. How many seasons are there in the year? What are they?

How long does each season last?

What are the winter (spring, summer, autumn) months? What is the weather like in winter (spring, summer, autumn)? What is the average temperature in winter?

What season is it when birds begin to sing? Which season is the hottest in the year?

Why do people like to have their holidays in summer? What is the best season for tourism (sports)?

What season is the harvest time?

Is the weather pleasant in September? Does it often rain in autumn?

What is the shortest (longest) day of the year? What is the busiest season of the year? Which is your favourite season and why? What is the weather like today?

What can depend on the weather?

4. Practice reading the following words and word combinations: cold холодно

warm тепло

rather cold довольно холодно rather warm довольно тепло

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long длинный short короткий days дни nights ночи

5. Practice reading the following questions and answers:

6. Practice reading the following sentences. Learn them by heart.

What is the weather like today? Kaкая сегодня погода? The weather is fine today. Сегодня погодаясная.

The weather is dull today. Сегодня погодапасмурная.

The sky is blue and cloudless ['klaudlis] Небо синееи безоблачное. The sky is grey and cloudy ['klaudi].Небо серое и облачное.

The sun is shining brightly ['braitli] in the blue sky.

Солнце ярко светит в голубом небе.

The sun is not shining. Солнцене светит. It is raining. Идетдождь.

It is snowing.Идетснег. It is warm. Тепло.

It is cold. Холодно.

It is rather warm. Довольно тепло. It is rather cold. Довольно холодно. It is hot. Жарко.

7.Describe today’s weather using the above sentences

8.Practice reading the following words, word combinations and sentences. Learn them by heart.

nature awakens-природапробуждается

it grows warmer -становится теплее buds- почки

shoot out new leaves- выпускают новые листочки meadows ['medouz] -луга

flowers begin to blossom -цветы распускаются farmers till the soil -фермеры пашутземлю sow [sou] the seeds -сеют семена

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a nightingale -соловей a swallow- ласточка

migrant birds- перелетные птицы nests-гнезда

lay and hatch their -eggs кладут яйца и высиживают птенцов corn fields -поля засеянные злаками

cornflowers-васильки poppies- мак

9. Read the text. Spring

Many people think that the most pleasant season is spring. In spring nature awakens from her long winter sleep. The days get longer and the nights shorter. It grows warmer. The trees open their buds and shoot out new leaves. The meadows grow green again, flowers begin to bloom. Farmers till the soil and sow the seeds. Nightingales, swallows and other migrant birds come back from the south. They build their nests, lay and hatch their eggs and sing their merry songs. The corn fields are bright with blue cornflowers and red poppies.

10.Repeat the description of spring close to the text or learn it by heart.

11.Practice reading the following words and sentences. Learn them by heart. famous -знаменитый

if the heat gets too oppressive -если жараслишком изнурительна to bathe -купаться

the hot sun ripens the corn- зерно созреваетот жаркогосолнца vegetables -овощи

harvest -урожай

12.Read the text.

Summer

Summer is the warmest season. The sun rises earlier and earlier and sets later and later. In June we have the longest days and the shortest nights and we in St. Petersburg enjoy the White Nights which our city is famous for. The weather is usually fine, the sky is blue and cloudless, the sun shines brightly in the sky. It is warm and even hot. If the heat gets too oppressive, we can bathe in rivers and lakes, or go to the sea-side. The hot sun ripens the corn, vegetables and fruit, and the farmers get ready for the harvest.

13. Repeat the description of summer close to the text or learn it by heart.

Practice reading the following word combinations and sentences. Learn them by heart. autumn sets in -осеньнаступает

a spell of fine sunny weather- период ясной солнечнойпогоды

Indian summer- "бабье лето"

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the ground is covered with fallen leaves -земля покрыта опавшими листьями the farmers are busy harvesting - фермеры заняты сбором урожая

15. Read the text.

Autumn

Autumn sets in September and brings shorter days, longer nights and colder weather. Autumn is a rainy season, but there may be a spell of fine sunny weather in late September which is called Indian summer, when the sky is clear and the nature is full of bright colours. The ground is covered with fallen leaves, and the trees are red, brown and golden. The farmers are busy harvesting.

16.Repeat the description of autumn close to the text or learn it by heart.

17.Practice reading the following words and word combinations. Learn them by heart.

soft -мягкий

blanket -одеяло, покрывало

lovers of winter sports- любителизимних видовспорта

go skiing and skating -ходят на лыжах и катаются на коньках enjoy tobogganing -очень любят кататься на санках

18.Read the text.

Winter

Winter is the coldest season, with short days and long nights, with frosts and snow. But it is also a beautiful season when nature is sleeping under a clean soft blanket of while snow. Lovers of winter sports go skiing and skating and hockey playing. Winter is a wonderful season for children, too, who enjoy tobogganing, playing snowballs and making snowmen.

19.Repeat the description of winter close to the text or learn it by heart.

20.Ask your friend:

какой самый холодный сезон года; когда больше всего бывает дождей; была ли снежной прошлая зима; замерзают ли реки в Беларуси;

где более мягкий климат: в Великобритании или в Беларуси; катаются ли на лыжах в Мексике; когда берут с собой зонтик; когда одевают теплую одежду.

21. Complete the sentences using emphasized words and word combinations

1.There are four seasons in the year.

2.Each season lasts three months.

3.Last winter was very snowy.

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