76

Part I

fame and fortune

(Cambridge Advanced English by Leo Jones, unit 11)

Pre-task: Highlight the words and phrases of the topic in appendix, check the meaning in a dictionary and complete thematic glossary.

Subtopic 1: The world’s famous person I admire.

COMPREHENSION

1 Answer the questions:

• What is your understanding of fame? Does it differ from ‘glory’?

• How is fame produced? Who can become famous? What features of character are necessary to become famous?

2 Read one of the opinions about Bill Gates and note the main reason the person admires him?

I admire Bill Gates, he’s the chairman of the Microsoft Corporation. Not because he has invented an amazing product, but… because although he’s so wealthy, and is obviously amazingly cleaver, he’s still down-to-earth and a kind of grounded and like a real person. He’s still really excited about what he does and he’s youthful enthusiast. He is approachable, people can contact him by E-mail and he replies them personally, he’s really down-to-earth person and that’s really why I admire him.

3.1 Read the listed below proper names, pay attention to their spelling. What do you know about them?

Brunei, Borneo, Malaysia, Sarawak, South China Sea, the Vatican, Dorchester hotel, Heathrow.

3.2 Listen to the tape “Millionaires”, pay attention to the pronunciation of the proper names, mentioned in the tape.

3.3 Express your agreement or disagreement on the following statements:

• The Sultan of Brunei is also the head of the government and the religious leader of his country.

• Brunei's wealth comes from reserves of gold and diamonds.

• Brunei is an independent country.

• When the Sultan was born, Brunei was a British colony.

• The Sultan has two wives: one of them is Japanese, the other one is Scottish by origin.

• His wives are extremely beautiful women.

• The Sultan's great passion is polo.

• Brunei is located on the island of Borneo.

• The Sultan takes great care of his people: they don't have to pay any taxes and the cost of health-care is very low.

• The Sultan has at least one daughter, whom he loves greatly.

• Brunei's reserves of natural gas and oil have been developed and exploited by Tiumenskaya Oil Company.

• Each citizen of Brunei has a swimming-pool.

• The Sultan's ponies live in air-conditioned stables.

• The Sultan's first wife lives in a car-park.

• The Sultan's second wife lives in jungle.

3.4 Discuss the Sultan’s achievements and reasons of his popularity.

4.1 What do you know about Walt Disney, his works and the characters he created (Oswald the Rabbit, Donald Duck, Pluto, Goofy, Mickey, Minnie and others)?

4.2 Listen to the broadcast about the life of Walt Disney.

4.3 Complete the unfinished sentences below.

1 Walt Disney first studied cartooning by doing a ..:...................................

2 The first character that Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks invented was ……...

3 Mickey first appeared in Steamboat Willie, which was the first ………

4 Mickey's voice was provided by ………………………………….……...

5 Mickey Mouse was nearly called ……………………………..................

6 Roy Disney was the ........... of Disney Studios and Walt was the………

7. Walt was not a good artist but he was an amazing .................................

8 Many of the famous Disney characters were first drawn by .....................

9 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (19.................) was the first ….…… - it required ......................... drawings and ............................. years' work.

10 Then came Pinocchio (19.....), Fantasia (19......) and Dumbo (19 ……).

11 Disney's image of kindly Uncle Walt was tarnished when …………..

12 In Disney's 'True Life Adventures' wildlife photography was accompanied by a jokey …………................. and tricky ...........................

13 Disney was one of the first film producers to see the ...................of TV.

14 Disneyland in Los Angeles opened in 19...... at a cost of $...................

15 When he died in 19...... he was working on the plans for…….…opened in 19….) and the EPCOT Center (‘E……………. P…………….. C………….. 0… T…………….’)

16 Disney's films are sometimes criticised for lack of ..............and ………. but they still appeal to …… …………………………………….. .

4.4 Work in groups. Find out from your partners:

- why it's hard to imagine a world without Mickey Mouse

- which Disney films they have seen and which they enjoyed most

- what they enjoy and dislike about Disney films

- why they think cartoon films are so popular

- who their favourite cartoon characters are - ask them to explain why they like them

- why they would like / not like to visit Disneyland or Disney World

5. Answer the questions:

• Which living man/woman or historical figure do you most admire? Justify your answer.

• Which figure from the past (or historical figure) do you most admire?

• Which one, of all the people mentioned, do you most admire and why?

• Do you think by the number of rich people one may judge about the country’s economic position?

Reading and discussion

1.1 Read through the text briefly and find out what these celebrities have in common. Discuss the following questions:

a What political positions have these people stood for? Which of them were actually elected?

b What are / were their policies? What are they for and against?

c What has each of them achieved in their original careers /in politics?

d In which career has each of them been most successful, do you think?

e Did you discover anything else surprising or interesting about any of these people?

Originally an actor, Ronald Reagan served two terms as President of the United States in the 1980s, but he always remained an actor at heart. When he won the election for Governor of California, Reagan was asked what he planned to do when he took office. 'I don't know,' he replied, 'I've never played a governor.' And at the 1987 Economic Summit in Venice, Italy, the leaders of the world's industrial nations were surprised to see Reagan reading his lines off specially written cards: not just at important meetings, but even at informal cocktail parties! But Reagan is not the only one who has used his fame to make an impact in the political world….

The star of such films as A Fistful of Dollars (964), Dirty Harry (1971) and Sudden Impact (19B3), Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood took time from his film career to serve two years as mayor of Carmel, California (population 4 800) in the 1980s, at a monthly salary of just $200. Frustrated by petty 'bureaucracy, and regulations, Eastwood entered politics insisting that his concern was strictly with Carmel and that he had no larger ambitions, 'I approached it from a business point of view, not a political one.' His slogan was simple, 'Bring the community together, and the proudest achievement of his two years in office was the construction of a new children's annexe at the local library.

Until 1997, 46-year-old Rosemary Scallon was famous for one thing only: at the age of eighteen, as Dana, she had become the first Irish winner of the Eurovision Song Contest with a naive little song entitled 'All Kinds of Everything'. Twenty-eight years later, now living with her husband and four children in the United States, Rosemary Scallon stood for the Presidency of Ireland on a non-party platform. She launched her campaign claiming, "There's nothing in the Constitution to say I can't sing as President'. At first her candidacy was widely seen as a joke, but in the end her campaign, based on traditional Christian values and morals, gained her fourteen per cent of the vote and established her as a force to be reckoned with in Irish politics.

In a career lasting more than twenty-five years, Romanian tennis star Nie Nastase won fifty-seven titles, and was rated the world's number one player in 1973. For all the brilliance of his play, he was also known for his flashes of temper and eccentric behaviour: once, he left the court during a doubles rally to chat to a blonde woman in the front row of the crowd. When his furious partner asked him why he hadn't finished the point, Nastase replied, 'There'll be another point in a minute ... there might never be another woman like that.' After retiring in 1985, he became a successful businessman, with homes in Romania, France, and the United States. In 1996 - apparently shocked at the poor state of the city's roads - he decided to run for mayor in his childhood home of Bucharest, ‘I tell my opponents they are ugly, lining their own pockets, and don't have a clue how to fix the city's most serious problems,' he said. Nastase failed to secure a majority, however, and left politics almost as quickly as he had entered it.

Irene Saez is Venezuela's most popular politician and a likely President of the future. In 1981, she was crowned Miss Universe, but turned down lucrative Hollywood offers to finish her graduate studies in political science. In 1995, she entered politics and won election as the mayor of Chacao, a district in Venezuela's capital city, Caracas. She managed to sort out the financial deficit, restore public buildings and even cut the crime rate. Proof of her popularity came when she was re-elected with ninety per cent of the vote. Although cynics might assume her success has something to do with her looks (indeed an Irene Saez doll is a big seller in the country) her supporters believe that she is that rare thing — a politician who really makes a difference to people's lives. The fact that she has the looks of a movie star is just an added bonus.

1.2 Discuss the following questions:

• Are there any celebrity politicians in Ukraine?

• Do you know anything about what they believe in or how they became involved?

• Do you think it is a good idea for celebrities to become involved in politics?

• Would you be more or less likely to vote for a celebrity than an ordinary politician?

2.1 Read the magazine article “Remarkable Charlie” (activity 11.3 A), follow the activities of the book (11.3 B-C), using the new vocabulary and some phrases for sharing opinions. For phrases to express agreement or disagreement see 11.5 A.

2.2 Retell the article according to the scheme:

• Charlie Chaplin’s background

• attitude to his films in England and other countries

• images created by Charlie on the screen

• working with inanimate objects

• family life