Comprehension

Exercise 1.Make up 7–10 true or false statements about the text to check comprehension.

Exercise 2.Sum up the main points of the chapter in your own words.

Language practice

Exercise 3.

a) Find synonyms in the text for the words and phrases below and comment on their difference, stylistic or otherwise. Think up appropriate contexts with them:

idiosyncrasy, n / to be better than smb. else / in harmony / to defeat / to adjust / moderate, adj / naive / fond of sth. / principle / confused, adj / reserved, adj / someone easy to persuade or influence

b) As you know, compound adjectives (i.e., built from two or, occasionally, three different parts of speech, like ‘a low-key approach’ in the text above) are quite common in English. Please look up more common compounds in a recent English-English dictionary, comment on their register and expressiveness and think up their possible Russian equivalents.

Cull more examples from newspapers and magazines. Business, court/crime reports, celebrity and gossip pages of magazines, ‘personal’ columns are good places to start.

Exercise 4.Identify the cultural information, cultural things, specific idiom and possible cultural topics that come through in the text and be ready to comment on them. An up-to-date dictionary on language and culture or any reference book will help you do it better.Note: you are expected to be able to sort out factual information from the author’s emotional attitude and evaluation.

Exercise 5. Phrasal Verbs Practice.

Write out all the sentences with phrasal verbs, look them up in a recent dictionary and think up their possible Russian equivalents in various meanings and speech situations. Be ready to give authentic examples of their use and your translation of the examples.

Exercise 6.What do they stand for?

They are a ‘can do’ nation / I don’t like whodunnits / She is a wonnabe / The haves and have-nots / He a has-been

Exercise 7.Look up non-metric weights and measures and complete the chart.

LENGTH	AREA	LIQUID	MASS
12 in = … … ft = 1 yd 1 in = … 1 ft = … 1 ml = …	1 acre = … 1 sq ft = …	4 gills = … 4 qts = … 2 pts = … 1 gal = … 1 pt = … 1 qt = …	16 oz = … 1 lb = … 14 lbs = … 1 stone = … 1 oz = …

Exercise 8.Which is greater in size, length, weight, etc.?

3 in or 8 cm / 2 acres or 1 hectar / 5 ft or 1.6 m / 1 mile or 1 km / 1 qt or 1 litre / 1 pt or .7 litre / 5 lbs or 3 kilos / 2 stone or 25 kg / 3 gals or 12 litres / 4 oz or 100 g / 4 in or 11 cm / 7ft or 45 in / 8 gal or 30 litres

Exercise 9.Below are some of the traditional ways the English-speaking community describe their height, weight and size. Read the descriptions, identify the country of the speaker and comment on their height, weight and size.

5’6’’ / 6’4’’ / 5’4’’ / 6’1’’ / 5’9’’ / 4’11’’ / 6’3’’ / 5’3’’

She is 5’6’’, 9 stone, and a classic 32–23–32. He is 6’2’’and 150 lbs. She lost 3 stone and is now only 14. She lost twenty pounds and is now only 120. Her sister is about 5’9’’ and something like 36–26–36.

Work out your own vital statistics, weight and height both in metric and non-metric units, and also both for Britain and America, and try to remember them.