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  1. Translate the following into Russian. State from what languages the following expressions and shortenings are borrowed:

coup d'état

kindergarten

tete-a-tete

blitzkrieg

enfant terrible

persona grata

beau monde

leit-motiv

primadonna

Hun

nazi

sputnik

ballet

football

etc.

e.g.

a.m.

p.m.

  1. Compare the meaning of the following Russian and English words. Consult the dictionary and give other meanings of these words. Use them in sentences of your own.

характер — character

реализовывать — realize

идея — idea

кондуктор — conductor

акт — act

спекулировать — speculate

агент — agent

иллюминировать — illuminate

агитатор — agitator

иммунитет — immunity

магазин — magazine

инцидент — incident

имитировать — imitate

объект — object

принципиальный — principal

Additional exercises:

  1. What are main ideas of the following texts? Give a short summary (5 sentences) of the texts.

Otto Jespersen

Growth and structure of the English language

Ch. IV. The Scandinavians (Extract)

It is true that the Scandinavians were, for a short time at least, the rulers of England, and we have found in the juridical loan-words linguistic corroboration of this fact; but the great majority of the settlers did not belong to the ruling class. Their social standing must have been, on the whole, slightly superior to the average of the English, but the difference cannot have been great, for the bulk of Scandinavian words are of a purely democratic character. This is clearly brought out by a comparison with the French words introduced in the following centuries, for here language confirms what history tells us, that the French represent the rich, the ruling, the refined, the aristocratic element in the English nation. How different is the impression made by the Scandinavian loan-words. They are homely expressions for things and actions of everyday importance; their character is utterly democratic. The difference is also shown by so many of the French words —having never penetrated into the speech of the people, so that they have been known and used only by the 'upper ten', while the Scandinavian ones are used by high and low alike; their shortness too agrees with the monosyllabic character of the native stock of words, consequently they are far less felt as foreign elements than many French words; in fact, in many statistical calculations of the proportion of native to imported words in English, Scandinavian words have been more or less inadvertently included in the native elements. Just as it is impossible to speak or write in English about higher intellectual or emotional subjects or about fashionable mundane matters without drawing largely upon the French (and Latin) elements, in the same manner Scandinavian words will crop up together with the Anglo-Saxon ones in any conversation on the thousand nothings of daily life or on the five or six things of paramount importance to high and low alike. An Englishman cannot thrive or be ill or die without Scandinavian words; they are to the language what bread and eggs are to the daily fare.